


Little Sparks

by DragonLover19



Series: Little Sparks Series [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Babies, Cute Kids, Emergence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mech Preg (Transformers), Minor Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Relationship, Singing, Surgery, Transformer Sparklings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 50
Words: 136,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24198574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonLover19/pseuds/DragonLover19
Summary: Sparklings aren't easy to care for. It was no understatement. Sparklings needed almost around the clock care and attention and it was hard to tell what power they inherit from their creators. But that didn't mean they were all trouble. No matter who their carrier or sire were, intresting things were bound to happen with one around.
Relationships: Blitzwing/Bumblebee, Blurr/Longarm Prime | Shockwave, Lockdown/Swindle
Series: Little Sparks Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082315
Comments: 161
Kudos: 641





	1. Blue or red? (ShockBlurr)

What color spark would a sparkling have between an Autobot and Decepticon?

That question haunted Shockwave when Blurr finally told him the news. To his credit, Shockwave understood why Blurr had avoided him for so long. Autobots had a thing with life and whatnot, so it was only logical that Blurr would want to keep the sparkling when he found out he was carrying.

But Blurr could only avoid him for so long, and Shockwave honestly missed having Blurr’s company. Despite his persistent need for speed and his fast talking speech, Blurr was rather nice company to have once the bot managed to calm down. And a surprisingly loyal conjunx. Somehow, Blurr had found out about his true second identity stellar cycles ago, but never once reported him in. At first he found it petty that an Autobot wouldn’t have the nerve to report him, but that was quickly squashed when he found out about Blurr’s… problem.

Past trauma, as the doctors had lightly put it. Most of Blurr’s sparkhood was filled with pain and suffering, so much that the bot only acted fine on the outside, but was basically dead on the inside. Shockwave couldn’t understand how Autobots could treat one of their own so poorly and unfairly just because of a simple mistake of their ancestors and bad upbringing of his creators.

Shockwave’s life may not have been special, but he could recall the good memories of his creators before their unfortunate offlinging and the few moments of sparklinghood that he forever treasured. Though to see the exact opposite from an enemy faction, so filled with pain and neglect, he was honestly surprised he didn’t defect and become a Decepticon. His speed and intelligence would be greatly useful for the cause.

He didn’t know why, but Shockwave soon found himself… attached to the smaller bot. Out of necessity at first that slowly built to something more as the stellar cycles passed. Bots would have noticed if the agent had gone missing, and Shockwave wanted to keep an optic on the bot to be sure he didn’t reveal his true identity. He never did, and he found his view of Blurr in a new light.

Cons weren’t normally all affectionate, with just the few who could stand one another for a long time before a fight broke out, but Shockwave could remember the close bond his creators had, and the bond Lugnut had with his consort Strika. While he himself was not an affectionate bot, Shockwave did show the smaller bot some love when he needed it. Apparently that was his own downfall as his affection soon turned into adoration, which turned into cherishing, and finally love.

Was he alright that his conjunx was an Autobot? No. Not if Megatron found out. While he did love Blurr, he was still loyal to the cause, and wouldn’t hesitate to carry out any order his leader commanded of him. But, that didn’t mean Lord Megatron _would_ ever find out about his relationship with an Autobot. His lies and loyalty had made sure that the warlord never suspected his small betrayal or find out about Blurr. And he had taken great lengths to insure that Blurr would never be put into harm or targeted by his fellow Decepticons. It was a small price he could pay for Blurr’s loyalty towards him.

As long as nothing hindered or gave away his identity, Shockwave could easily hide among the enemies as ‘Longarm’ and stay by Blurr’s side without anybot getting in his way.

That was the _plan_ , or how it should been.

In his defense, he couldn’t help himself to keep his claws off of Blurr. They had been careful with their prior… _intimacy acts_ , but it was his own actions alone that had caused this in the end. Blurr had warned him, he had tried to dissuade him, but in the end only Shockwave could take the blame, not listening and even persuading Blurr into security and calmness before they acted on love.

And now that act of love was growing inside of Blurr, building a small protoform within his gestation tank.

Hearing the news he had sired a sparkling, Shockwave was beyond happy. A sparkling. A new loyal follower for his great leader’s cause! And the feeling lasted a good while before the terror sunk in as he realized the situation he was in. A sparkling. Sparked within an _Autobot._

If it were any other bot, Shockwave wouldn’t have hesitated offlinning both of them to secure his secrecy. But this was _Blurr_ carrying his sparkling. His conjunx. He couldn’t do that to the one bot he loved! He knew Blurr was loyal and he knew he couldn’t risk harming the one bot he’d grown deeply attached to, but the sparkling could ruin _everything_.

It could reveal his identity, it could clue the Autobots in that he wasn’t an Autobot, it could do so many things that could break everything he built in just a nanoklik!

His thoughts were to have the sparkling deleted immediately, but he never set it into motion as Blurr knew him too well. The look of a broken spark was never something he wanted to see on Blurr’s faceplate. It reminded him all too well of those dark times Blurr fell into. He knew he needed to be careful and tread lightly with his actions around Blurr when his processor was in a dark place, otherwise his conjunx would hurt himself.

So rethinking had to be in order. Logic was his best weapon, so he had to use it and block all emotions out. Blurr was obviously attached to the sparkling and would most certainly keep it despite its heritage and its sire. If Blurr lost the sparkling, his processor would possibly crash and severely damage his mind, sending him in a spiral of darkness. And Shockwave didn’t want that.

Keeping the sparkling was the better option. Though, raising the sparkling would be a different problem. Bots would notice Blurr’s condition as time went by, they would ask to see it for their own optics. He could lie and tell them it was a miscarriage after the sparkling’s emergence, keeping it hidden with limited contact from Blurr. It would be harsh to lock his sparkling away from the outside world, but it would be a necessity he would need to take to ensure its survival.

He had gone over a few plans with Blurr in the dead of night, reassuring his sparkmate that he wanted this and had everything under control. Blurr was not a crier, but he did shed a drop of coolant or two as Shockwave explained how they would try to raise their sparkling.

When Shockwave almost drifted off into recharge, his processor was snapped when Blurr, in a sleepy slow haze, asked the one question that burned deep in his codes.

“do you think they’ll have a red spark or blue?”

That question shouldn’t have weighed so heavily on his thoughts, but it did no matter how much he tried not to overthink it and dismiss it, it kept coming back at full circle. What type of spark between an Autobot and Decepticon have?

A sparkling produced from creators from both sides was certainly not unheard of, and a sparks color often reflected which side it would inherit more, blue for Autobots and red for Decepticons, but a majority of the records Shockwave had gone through all had similar endings from both sides. Deletion. Only a few servoful had survived through the war and into adulthood, though whatever happened to them were either lost among the Decepticons or killed off by the Autobots.

It disgusted Shockwave seeing this side of his enemy. Sparklings were rare with Cons, and hard to raise without proper care that they need, but he never met a Decepticon that would kill a sparkling just for having Autobot coding in them. A few Con’s he knew had some Autobot codes in them somewhere.

And his sweet Blurr, who had no control of his heritage, had a bit of Decepticon coding in him himself. Faint and barely there, but still there.

But what would _their_ sparkling have? His Decepticon heritage? Or Blurr’s Autobot heritage?

He didn’t know, and it _scared_ him.

He tried not the think about it, but only for sever solar cycles till he finally caved. His question took Blurr by surprise, but his sparkmate complied and opened his spark chamber.

And there it was. Pulsing inside Blurr’s bright blue spark. A small, deep, royal blue spark. Moving about just below the surface of Blurr’s spark, almost zipping about every corner of the larger lighter colored spark it was housed in.

“… Primus. I’ve never seen a spark with such a dark color.”

Blurr looked up at him, frowning a bit with concern in his optics. “Is… is/that/a/bad/thing?”

“I don’t think so… At least, I hope not.” Shockwave leaned his head a little closer, watching the small spark move about with curious fascination. Already he could tell it would inherit Blurr’s love for speed as it moved about inside his conjunx’s spark, never being still for a nanoklik.

“Well/I/hope/it’s/not/a/bad/thing/because/I/don’t/want/it/to/be/a/bad/thing/cause/that/would/be/bad/and/I/don’t/want/that/but/then/again/I’ve/heard/that/some/bots/have/different/colored/sparks/which/reflect/on/their/optics/but/I’m/more/concerned/for/its/health/and—”

“Blurr. Calm.” Shockwave put one of his lager digits over Blurr’s mouth, silencing the Autobot. “We’ll worry about that later.” He went quiet a moment before shaking his helm. “Scratch that. _I’ll_ worry about that later. You just need to focus on resting.”

Blurr’s servos drifted to his middle. Though small and hardly noticeable, a bump was starting to grow around Blurr’s middle where his gestation tank was located. It would only be a few orbital cycles before the protoform would need to be removed for emergence.

He would need to schedule less taxing work for Blurr before pulling him out of the system. But that was for later. Right now, he just wanted to hold Blurr close to his chest and watch their little spark grow.


	2. Important News (BlitzBee)

> **_ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ. ʟɪᴋᴇ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɴᴏᴡ. ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴏᴜʀ ɴᴏʀᴍᴀʟ ꜱᴘᴏᴛ. ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ._ **

Blitzwing read the message over and over, looking at each word carefully. He had been beyond ecstatic when his datapad received a new message from his sweet Hummel, despite the late hour of the night, and eagerly opened the message expecting something silly or a quick message chat Bee loved to send him time to time or maybe a funny picture that organics called memes that he found rather amusing sometimes. But when he read the message, his joy soon turned to confusion.

A pit began to form in his tanks as he read the message one last time, biting his lower lip so hard his denta broke through the skin and drew energon as he sent a quick message.

> **_ɪꜱ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀʟʀɪɢʜᴛ ʟᴏᴠᴇ?_ **

Blitzwing hoped he was just overreacting, that everything was fine and Hummel only contacted him because he missed him and wanted to be away from the stress of this war for a while. His hope died when a new message appeared on the screen.

> **_ɴᴏ. ɪᴛ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛ. ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ'ꜱ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴇᴅ ᴜᴘ ᴀɴᴅ… ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ. ɪ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ._ **

A chill went in his spark. His peds were already moving as he quickly tapped a quick response. 

> **_ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴍᴏᴠᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇ. ɪ'ᴍ ᴏɴ ᴍʏ ᴡᴀʏ._ **

Tucking the datapad away, Blitzwing hurried out of the caves, making sure he wasn’t being followed and transformed. The cold night air brushed his plating as he flew past the city to the outskirts, going far beyond to where a thick forest laid. Where they had meet up after stellar cycles of separation.

He had been angry, beyond upset that his Hummel had gone missing for over fifty stellar cycles without a word or goodbye. Granted, he should have put two and two together after seeing the familiar ship the Nemesis was chasing after tracking AllSpark energy from it and realize that he, by some part of it or not, had caused his Hummel to go missing in the first place. But of course he was more focused on arguing with his crew than thinking how the ship looked strikingly similar to the ship his Hummel used to repair SpaceBridges.

And the reunion between them had not been… ideal. He could blame it on the new look his Hummel had, but he was a complete Dummkopf for not recognizing his Hummel’s voice right away. For Primus sake! They had been dating for over a thousand stellar cycles and that bot hardly knew when to stop talking! How did he not recognize his Hummel’s voice right away?! If the red and blue Autobot—( _Optimus, Hummel hatted it when he didn’t address his team by their designations_ )—hadn’t managed to grapple his Hummel in time before Lugnut tried to step on him, he would have tackled the big idiot for almost squishing his Hummel!

He didn’t get the chance to say a word to his Hummel before Lugnut suddenly towed him away, being blasted into pieces, reassembled by that traitorous _Starscream_ —( _though considering he snuck out to see an Autobot behind his leader’s back, he himself could be considered a bit of a traitor_ )—Megatron’s return, and the AllSpark being destroyed, everything was just piling on him one thing after another.

And finally, _finally_ , after everything that happened he was able to see his Hummel again. Though when they saw each other again after so long, the first thing they did was a scream at each other. He blamed Hummel for everything that happened, Hummel screamed at him for hurting his friends, he screamed right back how he had disappeared for fifty stellar cycles, Hummel shouted how and why he was gone for so long, and megacycles later after screaming out their voiceboxes to the point that smoke was coming out their intakes, he held Hummel close as they wept in each other’s arms. He was still angry at Hummel, but he was more than happy to have him back in his arms again and never let go.

Night time visits became a regular thing between them whenever they had the time to get away from their respected teams and met up. Fifty stellar cycles was a long time, and Blitzwing wanted to make sure he spent every nanoklik with his Hummel to make up for lost time. Even if the risk of getting caught was very high, he didn’t care. Seeing his Hummel's smile was worth it every time.

Landing in the thickest part of the forest, Blitzwing quickly transformed and headed in the direction he knew the lake was at. His Hummel had picked out the spot for their nightly meetings, having an excellent view of the night sky and far from any prying eyes of organics and robots from different factions alike.

Breaking through the foliage, his monocle immediately spotted the bright yellow paint of his Hummel. Warning horns blared in his helm seeing his Hummel, his tiny Autobot mechfriend, sitting close to the water’s edge of the lake, stabilizers hugged close to his chest and looking absolutely miserable.

He didn’t realize he was running till Hummel looked up at him and was immediately pulled into his arms, squeezing him tightly thinking if he hugged the minibot tight enough all his troubles would go away. Tiny arms wrapped around his neck, holding on tightly as Blitzwing eased himself down and sat there holding his Hummel by the lake.

He only held Hummel close like this three times before. Once when one of his caretakers was killed, another when Hummel thought he accidental killed him, and the other when they were finally reunited. His Hummel was emotional, yet he always tried to put on a brave face and act like nothing hurt him. Even around the bots he was closest too.

But that only brought up the question of why Hummel was _here_ instead of with his Autobot friends. Weren’t they super close like a family or something? His vision went red a moment, thinking that somehow Hummel’s team had hurt him in some way, but calmed himself quickly so that he didn’t stress his Hummel. After a few cycles, Hummel pulled away, rubbing his faceplate a moment before pressing himself against Blitzwing’s chest.

Large servos cradled the smaller bot, holding him close as Blitzwing waited for his Hummel to speak, not liking the quiet they were in. Sure the Con preferred the quiet over everything else, but he also enjoyed listening to his Hummel talk over and over about anything and everything. It was a cute trait of his. A few cycles later, Blitzwing finally broke the silence.

“Jou look vorried.”

His little Hummel hummed softly, pressing his face against his chest. Quiet and hiding against him were never the things that described his tiny Autobot. Two major things that meant something was wrong. “Hummel? Iz zomething vrong?”

His Hummel shrugged. “What makes you say that Blitzy?” Blitzwing frowned deeply, noticing how drained and empty his Hummel’s voice sounded.

“Jou only hum like zat vhen jou’re vorried. And jou hide jour face vhen something iz vrong.” Blitzwing put a digit under Bee’s chin, lifting it so their optics were looking at each other. He noticed there were dark bags under his Hummel’s optics with dry tracks of coolant on his cheeks. “And jou only call me Blitzy when jou’re trying to be cute… or if zere’s zomething important jou need to tell me.”

Bumblebee puffed out his cheeks, an act that Blitzwing always found cute. “I’m not cute.”

“Of course jou aren’t.” _Whirr._ “JOU’RE ABSOLUTELY _ADORABLE!_ AHAHAHAHA!”

“Frag off Blitzbrain.” Bumblebee huffed, smacking Blitzwing on the shoulder yet there was no heat or pressure put into it. “I’m not cute, and I’m not adorable. I’m roguishly handsome.”

“ _Zurre_ jou are. And I’m Cybertron’s number one most handsome bot in the universe!” Blitzwing cackled a bit as Bee hit him again. His face spun back to blue, looking at Bee with a serious expression on his face. “All jokes aside, zere iz zomething bothering jou Hummel.”

“No there is—”

“Hummel, I’ve known jou zince jou vere young and long before ve ztarted dating. Jou know jou can’t lie to me and get avay vith it.”

Bee looked at Blitzwing, his optics dim without their usual youthful energy in them. Now they look so dark and weak, and it worried Blitzwing to see his Hummel like this. A long moment passed before Bee averted his gaze, biting his lower lip.

“I can’t. I just… I can’t say it.”

Blitzwing frowned, rubbing his servo along Bee’s back. “Vhy?”

“…” Bumblebee huddled closer to Blitzwing, curling in his arms. Their size difference was always alarming and fascinating to Blitzwing. Bumblebee height was only a bit past his knees, and yet the bot always seemed smaller against him.

“…Erzählst du es mir in unserer speziellen Sprache?” Bumblebee looked up at him. “Ich weiß, dass Sie sich wohler fühlen, wenn Sie Ihre Sorgen teilen, wenn wir so reden.”

A snort escaped Bumblebee’s intake. “Das liegt daran, dass niemand außer Ihnen und mir es verstehen kann!”

“Ah, aber es hat dich wieder zum Reden gebracht, nicht wahr?” Blitzwing chuckled, hugging his Hummel close. “Also, wirst du mir deine Probleme erzählen?”

Bumblebee was looked to the ground, muttering something after a moment.

“Was war das?” He waited for Bumblebee to speak again, but after a few tense cycles, Blitzwing sighed. “Hummel, ich verspreche, was auch immer es ist, egal wie groß oder klein, du kannst es mir sagen. Wenn Sie sich über meine Reaktion Sorgen machen, tun Sie dies bitte nicht. Ich kann das nehmen.”

“…du versprichst?”

Blitzwing nodded. “Das verspreche ich.”

His Hummel looked into his optic, searching for something before averting his gaze and biting his lower lip again. After a few tense silent moments, Bumblebee whispered quietly.

“ _Ich bin… entzündet._ ”

The world went utterly silent around Blitzwing.

He looked at Bumblebee’s face, then at his chest. His intake opened and shut, trying to form words but nothing came out of it. When his processor finally registered what the tiny bot said, Bumblebee whimpered, pushing away from Blitzwing. “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

“Vhat? NO!” Blitzwing wrapped his arms around his Hummel, shaking his helm. “No I’m not! I svear!”

Blue optics narrowed at Blitzwing. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Yes you are! You’re lying and you hate me!” Bee slammed his fists against Blitzwing’s chest, coolant pooling in his optics. “You hate me cause I’m sparked and you don’t love me anymore cause you never wanted a sparkling and don’t want it in your life and—!”

Blitzwing acted before thinking, pulling his Hummel up and pressing his lips against his. The minibot froze a moment before slowly sinking into the kiss. They held their kiss for what seemed like stellar cycles when it was only a few cycles before Blitzwing pulled away, looking Bee in the optics.

“I’m not lying.” He spoke calmly but firmly. “I don’t hate jou and I ztill love jou.” He looked at Bee’s chest. “… are jou really…?”

Bee bit his lip, pulling back slightly enough for his chest plate to open and reveal his spark. Blitzwing’s monocle instantly zoomed in on his Hummel’s spark as his own did a flip when he saw it. A tiny little red and blue spark, deep inside Bumblebee’s own spark, nestled in the very center.

“Primus. It’s. It’s.” _Whirr_. “IT’S ZO ZMALL!” Random screamed, startling his Hummel as he pressed his faceplate closer to Bee’s spark, cooing at the sight as protective coding flooded his circuitry. “Look at it! It’s zo tiny! Zo _tiny viny itty bitty cutie votie patotie I could just to eat it up—_ ”

“No!” Bee screamed, closing his chest and covering it with his arms.

Blitzwing moved back, switching back to his Icy personality as his Hummel looked at him in alarm. “I… I vas only joking.”

“Don’t joke about something like that! Don’t _ever_ joke like that about this!” Bumblebee glared angrily at Blitzwing.

“I’m zorry, it vas just a harmless joke.” Blitzwing held up one servo in passive gesture, looking at Bee oddly. “Vhy are jou getting vorked up about zis?”

Silence hung over them a cycle, staring at each other. Bee’s glare slowly melted away, looking at Blitzwing up and down. “… you’re… you’re not mad about this?”

Blitzwing shook his helm. “No, I’m not mad.” _Whirr._ “ _ZOUGH I VOULD HAVE BEEN IF JOU KEPT ZIS TO JOURSELF!_ How long have jou known?!”

“Just this morning.” Bee chuckled, rubbing his optics. He frowned a little before continuing in a quieter voice. “I’ve been… low on energy for the past couple of solar cycles. I kept fainting at the worst times and everyone was suspecting that something was wrong with me. I tried to play it off as bad recharging, but then Ratchet cornered me and forced me to the medbay and…”

“… and… jou found out jou vere zparked.”

Bee nodded, hugging himself tighter. Blitzwing looked at his Hummel carefully, frowning deeply as Bee continued to avoid looking at him. _Whirr_. “Hummel? Vhy vouldn’t jou look at me?” Worry pooled in his tanks. “… zomething else happened, didn’t it?”

Bumblebee nodded.

“And, it vas bad. Vasn’t it?”

Bee nodded his helm slowly.

Blitzwing studied his Hummel carefully, looking at his face to his servos that were clutching his chest tightly in his digits. “… Hummel, did jour team—”

“React badly at finding out I’m sparked? Yeah, k-kinda. W-Well, Ratchet did.” Bumblebee sighed, his vents shaking as he spoke. “H-He, uh, he didn’t take it very well a-and started ye-yelling an-nd accusing me o-of being a t-traitor. I’ve m-made him m-mad before, b-but I n-never seen him _that_ angry before a-and—” Bee covered his mouth, coolant streamed down his face.

Blitzwing didn’t need to hear more. He hugged his Hummel close, rubbing a servo up and down his back, pressing kisses on his helm.

“Ich schwöre. Ich schwöre, ich werde dich beschützen. _Ihr beide_. Mit all meinem Funken.” He said quietly, letting Bee cry against him as his digits cupped the minibot’s chest housing the little life inside tenderly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation:
> 
> Will you tell me in our special language?
> 
> I know you feel more comfortable in sharing your worries when we talk like this.
> 
> That’s because no one but you and me can understand it!
> 
> Ah, but it got you talking again didn’t it?
> 
> So, will you tell me your troubles?
> 
> What was that?
> 
> Bumblebee, I promise, whatever it is, no matter how big or small, you can tell me. If you’re worried about my reaction, please don’t. I can take it.
> 
> You promise?
> 
> I Promise.
> 
> I’m… sparked.
> 
> I swear. I swear I’ll protect you. Both of you. With all my spark.


	3. Life Insurance Plan (SwinLock)

In the world he grew up in, Swindle learned that the universe never played fair. Nothing in life was going to be given to you freely. You either had to work for it, or steal it from someone else. In his experience, he learned to do both at the same time. Stealing and swindling other bots became his honed talent, being so good at it he was even able to sell a few goods to Megatron himself during the war.

His smooth voice managed to sway many in false sense of security as his charming words persuaded them to buy his wares. He was a master at it! When he was in the zone, there was no one who could escape his scruple grabbing grasp.

Or, at least, most bots couldn’t.

Honestly, he didn’t know when it started or who it was to blame for it. But a certain bounty hunter never seemed swayed or enticed by his words. He only wanted what he needed and nothing more. It was hard to get the bot to buy something else when his mind was set to it.

So, maybe it was his fault that their business deals started turning into something more somewhere along the line. Not enough to change much, but certainly enough to be considered a change in some right. Swindle blamed the bot’s unnatural know how of what got his spark thrumming in his chest plate so bad it hurt and his body weak against the hunter’s advances that he only wanted more. And the result of it all together?

It felt weird.

Not weird in a bad way, but it wasn’t a good weird either. It was like an upgrade that he had tried to program into his body, only his body wasn’t quite okay with it, yet at the same time was slowly getting used to it. And he had gone through plenty of upgrades over the stellar cycles, being an arms weapons dealer expert had required him to keep up on self-defenses and keep some of the best for himself.

But this wasn’t an upgrade, nor was it a weapon. Well, it _could_ have a weapon building somewhere, but for now nanites inside him were only focused on building something more important than anything else right now.

Something Swindle should have seen coming for not being careful enough and too trusting.

Swindle narrowed his optics, rubbing his digits over his spark chamber where a violet colored spark thrummed with power in its housing. It hadn’t always been purple. It was once a nice soft blue, like any other normal Autobot spark. But after he defected and imprisoned for so long in the stockades, it and his optics had slowly turned into a permanent deep violet color. Nothing could change them back, not even after he had gotten the Decepticon symbol branded on him, the codes could not override the color of his optics or his spark.

And if he was honest, he kind of liked the color. Sure it was different and set him apart from every other bot, but why should he care about that? He thought the color suited him quite nicely. Plus, a few bots seemed to be attracted to different uniquely colored optics. Helped with the business on a few accounts.

_His mutual friend also made a passing comment about them once in a while when they met up on a rare occurrence. Often calling them cat eyes. He sort of liked it._

Swindle frowned, feeling his spark pulse against his servo, venting slowly. His spark chamber let out a hiss, releasing steam as locks unhitched and opened wide. The open air against his exposed spark sent shivers down his back, fleetly thinking he should be used to this by now, and looked down at his spark.

A violet colored spark beat inside its camber, pulsing slowly and calmly. But Swindle wasn’t focused on that. He was focused on the smaller different colored spark drifting inside his spark. A bright scarlet colored spark, no bigger than his thumb, pulsed inside his bigger violet spark, moving around this way and that, yet stayed close near the center of his spark.

A sigh escaped his intake. There was no denying it. He was sparked.

The first time he had seen the smaller spark, he freaked out a little. Okay, maybe not a _little_ , but it was certainly a big surprise he hadn’t expected to see. And at first, he thought that he was just seeing things and hoped it would go away.

It didn’t.

Really, he should have seen this coming. Sure he was careful and had taken the extra procedure to make sure he didn’t get sparked by some random sleaze at a bar or a customer wanting more than a weapon. He always made sure his gestation tank was bolted shut when he went out, but that was only temporary. It hurt to keep it shut for a long time and it hurt shutting it every time he went out. He would have removed it, but then he would need to pay some doctor to do that, and he didn’t exactly trust anyone besides himself.

And another different reason he didn’t removed it but would never say out loud.

But if he wanted to put the blame on someone, it certainly wasn’t all his fault! His eyes narrowed as a certain bounty hunter crossed his processor. Slagging aft. Claiming to be sterile after all the upgrades his body went through. STERILE HIS ACTUATOR! He had the proof that said otherwise growing in him! The fragger!

He had the nerve to lie to him like that. It didn’t matter if all the other times they interfaced prior never put a sparkling in his tank before now, it was clear that _some_ of his nanites were still working in him somewhere!

With a tsk, he closed his spark camber, shutting his hood. Course some of the blame had to fall on him as well. He trusted that no good pile of rust not to spark him, _pit_ , he even trusted him enough to touch their sparks together! And the amount of interfacing they had done, it was no wonder a kid was growing in him.

Swindle got off the berth, heading out the room with a mission. Oh, he was going to give that fragger a piece of his mind! Sterile. Pah! The slagger might had removed his own gestation tank, but clearly that didn’t stop any chance for him to have a kid he didn’t want!

Swindle froze.

His servo touched the glass of his hood.

That’s right.

Lockdown didn’t want to have kids. Now that he thought about it, he remembered the taller bot once stating how he didn’t want a sparkling in his life. Too noisy, too demanding, too messy, too much work as he so lovingly put it.

But just because he didn’t want a sparkling, didn’t mean _Swindle_ never wanted to have one.

It was a tight shut secret of his, but Swindle deeply _loved_ sparklings. Before and after he had become a Con, Swindle had a soft spot for young sparked made bots at a young age. Pit, even during the war he would never harm a single sparkling from either side!

Something about a sparkling just made Swindle’s insides melt. Their small faces, the tiny servos, those big eyes, their innocent view of the world around them. Primus, he wanted one the moment he held a small sparkling in his arms! Bot or Con or both, Swindle adored sparklings.

Though with his business and life style getting in the way, he never had time or found the right partner to have one. War wasn’t a… ideal time to be raising sparklings. And bots were more concerned for their own skid plates than raising a sparkling.

But now?

Well, the war was over. Had been for over a hundred settler cycles now. Most Decepticons had fled after Megatron’s death. Some even defected and joined the Autobots or gone neutral. From what he heard, the current Magnus was trying his hardest to bring peace between the two factions and some Cons had openly willingly jumped towards being peaceful. Though, it was either to save their own sparks from death or a better life for their sparklings, Swindle could only guess.

Not _all_ Cons wanted peace though. There were still a few servoful Decepticons out there who still loyally followed their late leader led by Strika herself. Or so Lockdown had told him during their last encounter.

Swindle didn’t honestly get involve with things anymore outside of business. The death of Megatron had put an end to everything that he knew, and weapons dealing was certainly took a big hit on business. Sure he could still sell a weapon to an arguing pair of Cons, but now he had to watch his back to be sure he didn’t end up back in the stockades.

Though, now it just wasn’t him that he needed to watch out for. Now he needed to watch his sparkling’s back too. There was no way he was giving this kid up. Even if their sire was a total aft.

Swindle huffed, placing both of his servos over his spark chamber. He couldn’t tell Lockdown about this, no matter how mad he was at the fragger. If he found out that he sparked a kid in him, there was no telling what the bounty hunter would do. And he didn’t want to find out.

Setting his mind, Swindle headed to the front of the ship with new course plan set in mind. Step one, find a place to hide from Lockdown where he would never find him.


	4. Do NOT Say The 'F' Word (ShockBlurr)

Sparkling protoforms took about six orbital cycles to be built inside a carrier’s gestation tank. Some took longer depending on the amount of material the carrier consumed and the nanites from either creator. And some were built faster.

This should have concerned Shockwave a bit as Blurr’s condition started to show. Blurr was a thin bot, with slender build and thin limbs. His thin body helped reduce drag, which helped with his speed. And bots tend to notice when a normally thin bot gains a little… ‘bump’.

It was only the second orbital cycle, yet Blurr’s middle had gained a little notable bump. It wasn’t large, but it was still noticeable for bots to see. Most of his coworkers gave Shockwave, or as far as any of them knew, ‘Longarm’ knowing looks. Most of them gave him winks, pats on the back, and thumb ups, while Cliffjumper gave him a look of annoyance.

He could only shrug.

Pulling Blurr out of the system was going to be harder than he first originally thought. Blurr was a top agent of the system, even that Shockwave couldn’t deny. But because of that, Blurr was hard to replace. For speed, stealth, observation, and info gathering, there weren’t many bots who could match the same qualifications as him in the same system.

But that didn’t mean there were other bots outside the system that could work.

“What/are/you/looking/at?”

“Data of other agents from different systems.” Shockwave, currently in his Longarm disguise, answered while handing one of the datapads to Blurr. “Since you will need to be pulled out of the system for a while, someone will need to take your place temporarily.”

Blurr hummed, nibbling on a piece of iron. For some reason, Blurr had been craving strong durable metals like iron, aluminum, bits of magnesium, and a large number of brass as well. Shockwave was quite surprised that Blurr was eating more heavy duty metals instead of the lighter more mendable alloys. He would need to look into it more later.

“Not/a/lot/of/bots/are/the/same/even/if/they’re/made/by/the/same/mold.” Blurr noted, biting into the iron.

“That is true. Even so, there has to be a bot that’s close enough to be your temporary replacement. Can’t risk having you getting hurt out on the field.” Longarm’s blue optics drifted down to Blurr’s middle. “It could risk hurting the developing protoform.”

Blurr hummed, finishing up the iron. He looked at the datapad in his servos. “Have/you/tried/looking/in/the/civil/force?/They/have/some/decent/bots/there/that/could/work.”

Longarm paused a moment, thinking over Blurr’s words. “… They do have some dignified bots in that section.” He nodded. “I’ll have to contact them to see if any of their forces will be able to replace you during your leave.”

“I/hope/so.” Blurr sighed, sitting himself in a nearby seat, placing a servo on his small bump. “Because/let/me/tell/you/it’s/tiring/carrying/this/sparkling/around/and/don’t/get/me/wrong/I/love/it/to/death/just/as/much/as/I/love/you/but/you/can/not/be _live_ /how/heavy/it/feels/right/now/it/feels/like/I’m/carrying/a/ton/of/datapads/all/at/once/and/I’m/not/sure/if/that’s/normal/and/I/know/you/said/not/to/worry/but/I’m/a/little/concerned/for/their/development/and—”

As Longarm watched Blurr talk with loving optics, both agents had failed to notice the door sliding open. They still didn’t notice until a rude cough caught their attention. Sentinel stood in the doorway, looking at the pair with irritation on his faceplate.

“Is there a reason you two are just sitting around rusting instead of working?”

“It’s… been a rather slow solar cycle.” Longarm sighed inwardly. Primus he hated this bot. Forget that he hated all Autobots, _besides Blurr_ , this bot got on his circuitry like space barnacles! And he wasn’t the only poor bot who suffered under him. “Most of the work had been done with already.”

“I hope so Longarm. Command wouldn’t like it if they found you… slacking on the job.”

“I’m pretty sure my work speaks for itself for Command to see that I am far from slacking.” Longarm locked his digits together, smiling easily at the big chinned bot. “What do I owe the pleasure of this visit Sentinel?”

“That’s Sentinel Minor.” The bot narrowed his optics at the disguised Decepticon. “Keep up the disrespect, and I might have to report this behavior to the higher ups.”

Longarm narrowed his optics at the larger bot. “Oh, many apologies then Sentinel _Minor_. I’ll try to be more polite next time. But, do remind me. What rank is a _Minor_ compared to a _Prime_ again?” The corner of his intake lifted slightly as Blurr giggled a bit behind a servo as one of Sentinel’s optics twitched.

The large chinned bot vented slowly, frowning deeply. “Yes, well, um, I’m here on official business.”

“Official business?” Longarm tilted his helm a bit, his blue optics focused on Sentinel while his real optic slowly turned its focus on Blurr. The lighter blue bot had lost interest in Sentinel’s rude entrance and had instead focused on the datapad in his servo, taking out a sliver of aluminum and started nibbling on it.

Longarm secretly envied his conjunx. Blurr had mastered blocking other bots out when he simply didn’t want to associate with them or nothing caught his attention. Longarm wished he could do the same as Sentinel talked, burning his audibles with useless information he didn’t need to hear again.

“—and we suspect that there may be a Decepticon hiding among us.”

“A Decepticon?” Longarm feigned a small surprised look. “Here? On Cybertron? You must be joking.”

“Well I’m not. Apparently our intelligence got word that a spy maybe on Cybertron after an unidentified transmission was found.”

Longarm’s smile faded. “… really now?” 

“Apparently, a citizen stumbled across a broken transmitter in the lower systems of the planet. It was pretty corrupted and we only managed to get bits of the last transmission it sent, but everyone’s certain that there’s a spy somewhere on Cybertron.”

“… well, this certainly is… something.” Longarm set his servos down, screaming on the inside for his slip up. “I’ll need to keep an optic out for anything out of the ordinary. Is there anything else?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” Sentinel huffed, his optics turning their focus on Blurr. The lighter blue bot had yet to notice that Sentinel was looking at him, chewing idly on the end of the aluminum. Sentinel cleared his voicebox.

Blurr didn’t looked up.

The big chinned bot mad a louder noise.

Still nothing.

Sentinel was about to try again, but Longarm held up one servo, looking at Blurr calmly. “Zippy?”

Blurr blinked, looking up from the datapad at Longarm. “Yes/Longy?”

Longarm smiled as Sentinel glared at him. “It appears we may have a spy on Cybertron. I’m ordering security to be on the high alert. Would you be kind to alert the other intelligence officers?”

Blurr blinked, then nodded and stood, saluting him with a smile. “Of/course!/Anything/for/a/fellow/Autobot!” Longarm saluted him back, smiling brightly.

“You might want to cut back on the energon while you’re at it.”

Longarm flinched, looking at Sentinel as if he had two helms.

“… **_What?_** ”

“I said you need to cut back on consumption, agent Blurr.” Sentinel, either unaware or ignorant of the dark look Blurr was giving him, huffed as he crossed his arms. “Agents need to be fit and in top shape, not sitting around getting fa—”

**_CLUNK_ **

Longarm immediately stood up from his seat as Blurr tackled the large chinned bot, screaming enraged as his servos wrapped around Sentinel’s neck cables.

“ ** _FAT?!_** _/WERE/YOU/GOING/TO/SAY/ **FAT?!** /I’M/NOT/ **FAT!**_ ” Blurr screamed as Longarm grabbed him, pulling him away from the downed bot. It was a struggle. Despite his small size, Blurr was a capable fighter, kicking his stabilizers out to kick at high speed, aiming at Sentinel in the face, chest, and lower middle.

“Blurr! Blurr calm down! Think of the protoform!” Longarm extended his limbs, wrapping Blurr and finally managing to get him away from the bot. Making sure his conjunx wouldn’t escape from his grasp, Longarm looked at Sentinel and then realized that the door was still open with a smirking Cliffjumper sitting at his desk watching the whole thing. “… Why didn’t you help?”

“Are you kidding? Everybot knows it’s a bad idea talking to a carrying bot like that. Besides, he had it coming.” Cliffjumper snickered as Sentinel sat up, rubbing his helm in pain.

Longarm sighed, pulling Blurr into a hug. The bot was still fuming, venting heavily as his engine revved loudly. Longarm merely rolled his optics, reaching one servo up to Blurr’s antenna and gently flicked it at the end. The smaller bot’s optics widened, going still in Longarm’s arms, before melting onto them and giving off a soft hum.

Happy his conjunx had relaxed, Longarm released Blurr, holding him in the normal hug as he rubbed circles on Blurr’s back. “You’re not fat agent Blurr. It’s just sparkling weight. Completely protoform metal.” He kissed Blurr’s helm. “You still look thin as ever.”

Sentinel opened his intake, but shut it after Longarm gave him a glare. “Sentinel Minor. I think your business here is concluded is it not?”

Sentinel, not wanting to suffer any more wrath of a carrying bot, quickly got up, already moving halfway out the door… and then stopped. “On a serious matter, you really should hold off on the metals agent Blurr after the kid emerges. I heard bots can still have a bit of extra weight on them after—”

**_CLUNK_ **

A deep frown was on Longarm’s face as his conjunx hit Sentinel right in the face plate with the heel of his ped, sending the larger bot falling to the ground again. Even as the smaller bot proceeded to smack Sentinel with a datapad, he could only stare with mixed hidden joy and annoyance that the big chinned bot still learned nothing. Sharing a look with Cliffjumper, both bots shook their helms with matching deep frowns as Blurr continued assaulting Sentinel on the floor.


	5. Worry (BlitzBee)

Bumblebee was not a bot who simply waited.

Under normal circumstances, he was a rather excitable bot who lived for the thrill of speed and failed to stay still even for a nanoklik. But over the last couple of nights, he had been staring out the window at the night sky, almost longing to see a familiar shape against the stars and the sounds of jet engines filling the silence.

Bumblebee didn’t like being alone, even if he wasn’t technically alone right now. But even sparked, Bee missed having conversations with other bots and really didn’t like talking to himself. FireTrail had often remarked how bots talking to themselves was a sign of failing sanity, though Dusty often reminded him that he tended to mumble to himself quite often.

… wow. He hadn’t thought about his caretakers in a long time. Not since… since he left.

Bumblebee frowned, placing a servo on his chest. Thinking about his old caretakers always brought his mood down. They were good bots, not the best, but they had raised him the best they could. Well, Dusty did anyway. FireTrail was just… there. Not in the shadows or outside the room just… there. He couldn’t recall a time that FireTrail looked at him without dead optics and a frown on his faceplate.

 _Stop._ Bee shook his helm. He didn’t like thinking about his caretakers, especially FireTrail. He didn’t hate the old bot, it was just… hard.

Venting, Bee returned to looking out the window. It was a nice night out, with a clear sky with all the stars out on display. The stars looked the same as they had on Cybertron, only there wasn’t a moon there like Earth did. Sari would point out different stars when the night was clear like this, telling him their names and what they mean.

Bee groaned, hitting his helm in the wall.

 **Great.** Now he was thinking about his friends. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it still hurt thinking about them. No doubt in his mind Ratchet already told them about being sparked by a Con. It wasn’t his fault! … mostly.

… Okay, some of it was mostly his fault. But most of it was Blitzwing’s fault as well! His Random face was hard predict, even with all the stellar cycles they had been together after Blitzwing became a triple changer. He should have been more on guard when the Con started snuggling him and kissing him all over. And then he licked him across the face with that glossa of his.

That glossa was the breaking point of it all, even if Bee couldn’t remember most of it. But he did remember that glossa trailing down his back, digging into the joint of his legs and touching sensitive wiring there and after that well… he’d had to admit, he didn’t remember anything after that. All he could remember was waking up on Blitzwing, feeling like he was on cloud nine, or was the saying ten? Whatever, all he could remember was that it felt awesome, even if he couldn’t walk straight for a while.

Even if such action got him in this situation.

He sighed, rubbing his chest. He didn’t blame the sparkling. If anyone was to blame it was him and Blitzwing for not being careful.

His helm perked up, hearing the familiar sound he was waiting for.

Jumping to his peds, Bee made a mad dash for the door, pushing it open just as Blitzwing transformed and landed in front of the warehouse. During their many secret night meetings, they had found an abandoned warehouse deep in the forest. It wasn’t as big as the warehouse the other Autobot’s lived in, but it was big enough for Bee and Blitzwing to fit comfortably inside.

“Blitz!” Bee smiled, running up to the Decepticon.

“MEINE KLEINE BIENE!” Blitzwing screamed happily, landing on his knees so Bumblebee could jump up and hug him. “I missed jou~!” Blitzwing practically purred as he hugged Bee close, rubbing his helm against Bee’s.

Bumblebee laughed a bit, hugging the Decepticon close, relishing in his warmth. He was so warm, Bee could almost fall into recharge against him. He had before. Blitzwing was just that comfortably warm. His digits traced Blitzwing’s armor, making small circles with a single servo, relishing the feeling of smooth metal under his touch—

Until his ped brush against a deep groove.

His optics snapped open, pushing away from Blitzwing. “Hummel?” Bumblebee squinted in the dark, looking at Blitzwing’s chest carefully.

“Blitzwing. Are… are you hurt?” Bee brought his digits against Blitzwing’s chest, feeling around for the groove. Moving his servo down, he located it just under where Sari called a rib cage, feeling indentation out carefully. It almost felt like… a _fist_? Bee’s optics widened, switching the servo for a stinger and lighting it up. He gasped at the sight.

“Blitzwing!” Bee exclaimed with panic as the larger bot tried to hide the wound with his servo. “Blitzwing you’re hurt!”

 _Whirr._ “It’s not zat bad Hummel. It’s just a zmall vound.”

“More like a crater in your armor!” Bee exclaimed, trying to push the larger servo away from the large dent. “Did Megatron do this to you?!”

“Yes.” Blitzwing sighed, knowing it was fruitless to fight against Bee when he spotted a wound on him.

“Why?! What happened?!” Bee touched the dent with his free servo, looking at it worriedly. He only saw the warlord from a far distance a couple times, but he knew this was made by no one else but the Decepticon leader. It was too big to be made by an Autobot and he knew Blitzwing wouldn’t hurt himself.

“Nothing important.” Blitzwing shook his helm. “It was… just a disagreement.”

“Like frag it was just over a disagreement.” Bumblebee huffed, examining the deep dent. “Slag Blitz, this looks like it hurts.”

“It doesn’t. Zee pain vent avay a vhile ago.” Blitzwing grabbed Bee’s servo, pulling it away gently. “I’m fine Hummel. Really.”

Bumblebee huffed, crossing his servos. “Are you sure.”

 _Whirr._ “YES I’M ZURE! Ztop Interrogating Me Vill Ja?! I Told Jou It Doesn’t Hurt Zo Ztop Vorrying And—” _Whirr._ “Let’s Dance The Hokey Pokey!” Blitzwing jumped to his peds, dancing a little as he sang some of the Hokey Pokey song.

Bumblebee frowned at Blitzwing’s usual crazy antics. Normally he would have enjoyed seeing him act like this, but right now, Bee’s thoughts were being clouded with worry. Blitzwing seemed to catch on that Bee wasn’t paying him any attention, and switched back to his normal main persona.

“Please don’t vorry Hummel.” Blitzwing crouched down on one knee, bringing a digit under his chin and lifting his helm up slightly. “I’m fine. Really. I’ve dealt vith vorse zings zan zis.”

Bumblebee cringed. “That… doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”

Blitzwing shrugged. “It just means zat jou care.”

Bumblebee snorted, grabbing Blitzwing’s servo. “Of course I care! You make it hard for me not to care you big dummy! I just don’t like seeing you hurt and you being so calm about it!”

Blitzwing shrugged. “I vas built for var. Zustaining vounds vas a common zing in a fight.”

“But this isn’t war! You don’t _need_ to fight!”

Blitzwing frowned, rubbing his thumb against Bee’s cheek. “Unfortunately, meine liebe kleine Biene, zis _is_ var. And I’m expected to fight.”

Bumblebee optics drooped, pressing his faceplate against Blitzwing’s servo. “… yeah. I guess it is.” Pressing his face further in, he added quietly. “Und ich mag es nicht.”

Blitzwing was quiet for a moment as Bee hide his face in the palm of his servo. Despite the large dangerous appendage so close to his helm, Bee felt safe in the servo. Even when he was a little tiny sparkling, Bee never felt scared placing his trust in Blitzwing. He practically grew up with the Con over stellar cycles of trust built between them. Bee could trust Blitzwing to never harm him or place his life in danger.

Was it crazy that he was in love with a Con? From a normal Autobot’s perspective maybe it was, and not really accepted at that out in the open community. But Bee was never just a _normal_ Autobot. He was more than that! He could never fit in with the other bots because he knew normal bots weren’t supposed to befriend and fall in love with a Con!

But somehow he did, and he loved Blitzwing with all of his spark. Trusting him with the darkest secrets that he knew, things he didn’t even trust his friends with! Well, except Bulkhead on some degree. He kinda knew about Bee’s relationship but he didn’t quite approve of it. He still kept quiet about it though.

“Oh! Before I forget, I got jou zomething.” Bee looked up as Blitzwing reached into his subspace. When he removed it, Bee’s optics lit up as his mouth began to water with empty feeling in his tank making itself known to Bee. “It’s not much, but I hope zis vill be enough to—”

Bee jumped at the open servo, digging through the pile of metal, sorting through it till his servos grasped a large piece of lead and began biting ferociously into it. His denta dug into the metal, biting it down to a manageable size that he could grip in his mouth. With a hard snap of his helm, he snapped off a piece of the lead, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing it. Going in for another bite, Bumblebee noticed Blitzwing was staring at him.

“… What? Haven’t seen a mech hungry before?” Bumblebee glared a little, covering the lead with his body as he nibbled on the edges.

Blitzwing blinked, shaking his helm. “Zorry, zorry. It’s just… jou must have been hungrier zan I zought.”

Bee paused, looking down at the metal in his servos. “… heh. Yeah. I-I guess I was.” He shyly glanced at Blitzwing’s servo. “… do… do you have any aluminum? Or titanium in that pile?”

Blitzwing glanced at the pile in his servo. “Zere could be zome in here zomewhere. I only grabbed as much as I could before I left.” He looked up with a smile. “Craving for heavy yet light weight metals?”

Heat filled his cheeks. Bee only nodded, turning his helm away and chewed on the lead.

Blitzwing chuckled, scooping Bee up in one arm, ignoring the small protesting whine the minibot made, and went towards the warehouse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation:
> 
> MY LITTLE BEE!
> 
> My dear little Bee
> 
> And I don’t like it.


	6. Unexpecting Rescue (SwinLock)

There was something about hopping place to place that sooth Swindle’s nerves. The new sights, different faces, the change of scenery. All of it just screamed one thing to Swindle.

_New business opportunities._

Everywhere he looked, Swindle could see so many new bots to scheme and sell his wares to. He could almost imagine the scruples pouring in now~! He could almost taste the sweet metal in his intake right— _wait…_ Rrrrrright. Metal cravings. Swindle reached into his subspace, pulling out a small bolt and popped it into his intake. He vented inwardly at the dissatisfied taste.

 _It’s not nitinol, but it’ll do._ Swindle thought bitterly, chewing on the bolt of lithium. _You’ve been craving more of the flexible type of metal haven’t you kid?_ Swindle tapped the glass in his chest, smirking a little.

Things had been going smoothly since Swindle found out about his little passenger in his spark. He was only an orbital cycle in, yet things were going well as they should be. He didn’t want to take any risks while carrying, he was going to keep this kid safe and sound with him. Even if it meant… _UGH._ Spending money to see a doctor on the spark’s development.

He didn’t mind so much on spending his hard well-earned stolen scruples. Primus knows how much he spent on himself to look flashy, clean, handsome, and young. It was the thought of other bots poking around his insides that he hated. Too many bots had tried poking around in there to find out how his subspace pocket worked once it came online and… some of them hadn’t been too gentle with him.

It was a flicked thing really. Sure Swindle never really considered it a _real_ power, but it had its uses. Unlimited space, weightless carriage, and what he considered the best part of it, only _he_ could access it. Sure bots could open his compartment and reach inside, but they wouldn’t get far to reach the bottom and find it completely empty.

Only his servos, linked up to his spark signature with special coding, could reach inside and grabbed whatever he needed. The looks on any bot’s face when they realize this was always priceless to see.

_Lockdown was even surprised when he tried getting the gun he wanted from his subspace, only for his servo to touch the flat bottom of his drawer. Swindle laughed as the mech tried searching around the empty compartment for the gun, looking more bewildered and angry by the—_

Swindle blinked. Shaking his helm, he vented deeply. _Slag,_ he was still thinking about the fragger. He really needed to stop thinking about that mech before he did something drastic. Swindle looked at the time, swearing inwardly when he saw the time, and hurried along. He had a business deal he needed to get to.

* * *

He honestly couldn’t believe his luck.

Swindle hissed, putting pressure on the wound. It wasn’t so bad. Just a bullet wound in his arm. Could have been a lot worse if he hadn’t moved away in time.

Honestly, he had just made a good deal when a ground of bots showed up and attacked! Bounty hunters no less! Oh this was just his day! He lost a sale, a gun, and now he was being chased down by hunters! Great! Just great!

Swindle dodged into an alley, pressing his back against the wall. He took a moment to calm himself before looking at his damaged arm. The wound had hit close to his elbow, almost hitting the connection line that moved his digits. Even when he tested their movement and found he could still move them, it hurt like pit doing so.

“Slag.” Swindle hissed again, trying to stop the flow of energon leaking out from the wound. They just had to shoot his good arm didn’t they? He couldn’t aim well with attached to a bad arm, past experience taught him that.

 _Okay. Okay. Calm down._ Swindle shook his helm, peeking out from the alleyway. _Look at your situation right now and focus. You’re hurt, but not enough to worry about. Got to stay calm and not stress out the spark growing in you._ Touching the glass of his hood, Swindle pressed against the wall, venting slowly.

_It’s not safe being here anymore. You got to get to the ship and get out of here while you still can before you sustain anymore injuries. The ship should be—_

“THERE HE IS!”

Swindle’s optics widened, sparing a glance out the alley and cursed, running further in as two bounty hunters chased after him. On a better day, he would have stand his ground and fight. But he was no fighter. He didn’t have the better fighting capabilities like a well-trained bot or power like a Decepticon. Sure he had the weapons for it, but most of them were just for sale and the majority of the weapons he did use required time to aim, charge, and shoot. And Swindle really didn’t have the time for any of those things.

He was more of a swipe and run type of bot in these types of situations. Pulling out his whole body weapons were more use of a scare tactic than fight. It work. Sometimes. Not all the time. But it worked when it worked.

Swindle flinched as something whizzed past his helm. Shooting a glare over his shoulder, he saw one of the bounty hunters had drawn their weapon. _Frag._ Now they were shooting at him. He already had an arm bleeding, he didn’t need another wound to go with it!

Swindle turned the corner but stopped when he saw it was a dead end. He turned around, pressing his back against the wall as the bounty hunters drew near, weapons drawn and pointed at him. Swindle’s spark felt cold as he realized his was trapped. The walls were too high to climb, the only way out was blocked, and the arm that carried his gun was starting to lose feeling in it. There was only two ways Swindle saw this going. Either he was going to fight and sustain more wounds. Or he could do what he did best and negotiate his way out of this.

And he really hoped they were dumb enough to negotiate for his freedom. “Now let’s be reasonable here! You two seem like nice bots. Why don’t we—”

Pain bloomed against his head, and Swindle found himself on the ground with an aching processor. There was a sharp kick to his middle and a shot to his leg. Swindle bite in lower lip, biting back the scream in his intake. His arms wrapped around his chest, protecting the small spark and gestation tank from any blows.

“We don’t do _deals_ with _Cons_.” One of the bounty hunter’s hissed, slamming their ped down on Swindle’s middle. “We’re bringing you in Decepticon. Online.” They pointed the weapon at Swindle’s helm, aiming right between his large purple optics. “Or offline.”

Panic swarmed in Swindle’s mind. He knew some hunters were willing to bring bots in in a mangled broken mess while still functioning, but he also knew there were bots capable of _killing._ And judging by the look in the bot’s optics, he seemed willing to kill without hesitation. And he seemed to be planning on doing just that. “W-Wait—!”

**_CLANG_ **

Swindle blinked. The weight on his middle was gone. And so was the bounty hunter. In another blink shots were going off and Swindle suddenly realized he was no longer pinned down. Flipping to his stomach, Swindle crawled away from the sounds of a fight. His spark did a flip when he heard one of the hunters let out a painful scream along with the sound of a saw cutting through metal.

_A saw that sounded too familiar to him._

Swindle scrambled towards a wall, getting his shaking peds underneath him and struggled to stand. He was half way standing when there was a loud _CRACK_ and everything went silent. It didn’t take a genius to know the fight was over. But… who had won? The bounty hunters? Swindle doubted it. They sounded like they were fighting a hundred bots at once by the struggling and screaming he heard. So, that only left his unexpected rescuer… who he really, _really_ hoped wasn’t who he was thinking it was—

“ _Wellll_ , if ain’t my old pal _Swindle._ ” Swindle froze. His optics slowly turned upwards. There he was. Lockdown. The mech who put bounty hunter wannabes to shame. And in a coma with a single punch.

The two bounty hunters that were chasing Swindle were laid out on the ground, covered in dents and blast marks while Lockdown stood without a single scratch on his frame. One of them had a fist made deep dent in their faceplate, and the other, the one who had pinned him down earlier, was flat on the ground with a bent out of shape leg and a missing arm. Which was currently held in Lockdown’s remaining servo. _Slag_ , he knew Lockdown could be brutal, but he hardly ever saw it in action and when he did see Lockdown brutalize a bot, it got his systems all worked—

Swindle blinked, shaking his helm roughly. Which was not a good idea. Swindle hissed, placing a servo on the side of his helm where he had been kicked, touching it gingerly for any energon. It only felt like a dent, which he would need to hammered out later. His body stiffened when he felt another servo touching his helm.

“ _Yeesh_. Kid had a nasty kick to ‘em.” Lockdown huffed as he examined Swindle’s dent, looking between it and his leg and arm. Swindle stayed very still. His mind was stilled filled with panic, though now he was more scared of the bounty hunter he had known for stellar cycles than he was of dying moments ago. He could still very well be dead. Lockdown did have a nasty tendency to have a nasty temper when pushed the wrong way. He had never been on the receiving end of it but he had seen what the bot did to other when—

“Swindle. Hey.” Swindle jumped a bit, blinking into focus of the maroon servo snapping its digits in front of his face. “Swindle.” He turned his helm, looking at Lockdown’s frowning face. “Did hear anythin’ I jus’ said?”

Swindle blinked. Had Lockdown been talking? Had he? He didn’t hear anything. Maybe? He didn’t know. His processor was still spinning with panic, and he felt a little tipsy for some reason. Swindle looked at his leg. Ah. Right. He was bleeding. Energon was trickling out of his leg. Or was it his arm? He couldn’t remember. He needed to lay down before he fell over from being tipsy. Tipsy was nice. Tipsy clouded his mind a bit but it was nice. Felt good. Why was there a hook?

* * *

When his processor finally kick into reset, Swindle noticed he was moving and that he was laying on something very uncomfortable.

It took him a cycle to realize he was being carried. _By Lockdown_.

His optics widened, shooting up off against Lockdown’s spikes before hissing and clutching his helm. Lockdown turned his helm a bit, glancing at Swindle with one red optic. Red like the small spark inside his violet spark. “Oh. Yer awake. Was startin’ to wonder if ya gone offline.”

Swindle glared a bit at Lockdown, easing back against the bot’s back, trying to ignore the spike poking against him. How did a bot like Lockdown live with so many spikes on his body? Why was he against Lockdown’s back anyway?

“Ya fainted idiot.” Lockdown huffed, turning his helm around. “You were freakin’ out so much along with the energon loss ya blacked out fer a bit.”

Swindle’s optics widened, looking down at his leg. Trails of energon was coming out of his wound, leaving bright pink liquid lines against his gold plating. He vaguely remembered another limb losing energon, looking at his other limbs before finding the wound on his arm. It was bleeding just as bad as his leg, feeling numb and none of his digits responded when he tried moving them. With a frustrated sigh, he slumped his helm against the back of Lockdown’s neck, closing his optics and venting deeply. “Slag.”

“You can say that again.”

“ _Slag._ ”

A snort tore through Lockdown. “You were lucky I was nearby. ‘Nother nanoklik n’ you’d be dead by now.”

Swindle hummed, too tired to speak and his mind was still pounding in pain to think of any remark to say back.

“Listen.” Lockdown spoke up, stopping Swindle from dozing off. “I’ll take ya back to my ship ta have ya fixed up. Once yer fixed, we have a little business to discuss fer yer rescue.” Lockdown turned his helm again to look at Swindle. “I don’t do freebies. Deal?”

Swindle stared at his a moment before snorting, pressing his face against Lockdown's neck. “… deal.”


	7. Grand Carrier (ShockBlurr)

Shockwave didn’t fear many things. He didn’t fear like normal bots or cons, nor did he even have any set fear at a young age.

Blurr knew this because his sparkbond told him this. Being bonded to Shockwave, Blurr could feel what his conjunx could feel at times. Mostly it was calmness and curiosity and a lot of times love when Shockwave was around him. Feeling the secureness and confidence from their bond was relaxing as Blurr tended to get over excited and worried at times.

They were sort of a balance. Calm and collect with fast and excitable. He could be calm, when he wanted to, but he was really calm when he was with Shockwave.

“You’re/nervous.”

“I am not _._ ”

Blurr smiled, hugging Shockwave more. He liked it best when he was in his Longarm form as it made it easier to hug him from behind. And that he was just slightly taller than him when he was in disguise. “It’s/okay/to/be/little/nervous.”

“I’m _not_ nervous Blurr.” There was a strain in his voice, all three optics focused on the door.

Pressing a small kiss to the back of Longarm’s helm, he felt his conjunx relax slightly. Not as much as he wanted, but then again his bondmate did tended to get a little tense whenever _she_ decided to stop by for a visit. Blurr wouldn’t have minded on any other solar cycle, _she_ did have a tendency to come and go as she pleased, and no bot could stop _her_.

Though the last time _she_ had dropped by unexpected, Blurr had plead for _her_ to at least call ahead next time. Shockwave still kept locking all five locks on their doors at night.

Blurr shifted one arm down to his middle, rubbing the growing bump. “Do/you/think/she’ll/be/excited?”

“… I don’t know.” Longarm’s body shook a little. Just a small tiny easy to miss shudder. While he certainly looked calm on the outside, Blurr could feel the growing nervousness in their bond. Real, genuine, nervousness. Blurr almost couldn’t comprehended when he felt it the first time and almost thought it was a slip up. But it had happened more than once before Blurr finally understood why.

Despite being a strong, battle worn, killer Con, Shockwave was not immune to feelings and expressing emotions. He could laugh, he could feel sad, he could feel anger, and love. But there was one thing that he hardly showed. And that was fear. Sure Blurr had felt him be hesitant and slightly nervous on a few occurrences, but fear was genuinely so rare Blurr thought it was mostly impossible for the bot to feel such thing.

And only one bot brought that out of him.

Longarm tensed as the door slid open and a cyan blue bot stepped in. She vastly resembled Blurr, though her helm curved at the back, splitting in the middle and sticking out like horns on each side of her helm, though the right ‘horn’ was missing a chunk. She had thin sheets of metal that trailed behind her like a gown, and on her right arm was an old battle scar with a white lightning bolt painted on top. When her optics landed on the pair, her lips curved into a wide smile, throwing her arms in the air. “Blurr!”

Blurr gave a small squeeze to Longarm as the disguised bot tensed a bit, smiling brightly at the old bot. “Gran!”

* * *

“ _OH MY PRIMUS THAT IS THE SMALLEST CUTEST LITTLE SPARK I EVER DID SEE!_ ”

Shockwave cringed, rubbing his helm as his audibles rung with pain. Still, he couldn’t help but smile inside as Blurr’s grand carrier gushed at the sight of Blurr’s spark. SpeedStarr, an old war bot femm, cooed at the small dark blue spark that was zipping around inside Blurr’s spark she demanded to see once she saw Blurr’s condition.

“Oh my goodness! It’s so slagging _small!_ Hello little one~! I’m your grand carrier! Or, well, great-grand carrier now. _Dear Primus I’m getting old._ ”

“You’re/not/getting/old/Gran.” Blurr chuckled.

“I _am_ getting old Blurr. I’m over eight million stellar cycles old. Even older than you two combined.” SpeedStarr waved her servo at Blurr and Shockwave, sighing dramatically. “Oh, the joys of youth! How I miss thee~!” She placed a servo on her helm, gazing up to the sky as if she was yearning for her youth back. “… _Not._ _CAA_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca!_ ” She laughed, placing her servos on Blurr’s rounded middle, looking at it with a large smile. “Dang B, are you trying for twins?”

“No/no/no./Only/one/as/you/can/see.” Blurr tapped a digit on his spark chamber. “One/is/plenty/enough/to/handle/right/now/not/that/I’m/saying/I/wouldn’t/want/more/some/time/down/the/line/but/one/is/good/enough/for/now/and/we’ll/thinking/about/other/sparklings/but/we need/to/focus/on/this/one/before/any/plans/for/more/sparklings/right/Shockwave?”

Shockwave tilted his helm. “It’s… something we’ll talk about some other time.” Blurr smiled at him.

* * *

“You two never mentioned wanting sparklings before.”

Shockwave sat quietly. SpeedStarr sat on the other side of the table, sipping on a glass of energon. Per her request, Blurr had retired early to the berth. So now, there was only Shockwave and SpeedStarr, sitting in the living room at opposite ends of the table.

Shockwave **_hated_** it when it was only him and SpeedStarr in the same room. Despite being three times her size and stronger than her, Shockwave felt on edge. Normally he would be the one putting others on edge just by a glance, but SpeedStarr made him feel like _he_ was the smaller bot in the room. And she was only sitting across from him!

For Primus sake she wasn’t even looking at him! How could this bot be Blurr’s grand carrier?!

“It was… a surprise at best.” Shockwave tapped his claw on the table, trying to find the right words to explain himself. _Primus_ he hadn’t felt this nervous since he asked Blurr to be his conjunx. And back then his wasn’t as nervous as he was now! “Sparklings weren’t something we had in mind or discussed often. Not… not now at least.”

SpeedStarr hummed around the rim of the glass, taking a slow sip. “And you plan on keeping it? Letting it stay with you and Blurr, raising it as best you can?”

“Of course.” Shockwave nodded, looking at the table. Sure the sparkling could ruin everything, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want it.

SpeedStarr hummed again, setting the glass down. “Have you thought of names yet? Or do you plan on keeping it nameless until it rolls into an academy?”

“We’re naming it. We’ve already got a few names that seem… fitting enough.”

“As?”

Shockwave tapped his chin a bit. “Blot. Prism. Speedster. Slip. Night. Shockrr. Lightning. Onyx. Just to name a few.”

SpeedStarr hummed. Again. “They sound like nice names.” Her optics onlined, looking at Shockwave directly. “… I don’t like you, Shockwave.”

Shockwave flinched at the cold words shot at him. “I’m… very aware of that.”

“I’m only tolerating you because of Blurr.” She picked up the glass, swirling its contents around slowly. “He likes you. He _loves_ you.” Her optics narrowed slightly. Shockwave though he felt an ice pick going through his chest. “I’m sure you’re very aware of how much you mean to him.”

“… Everyday.” Shockwave curled his claws in, trying to stay brave under SpeedStarr’s cold glare. “A-and he means just the same to me. I-if not more.”

“I would hope so.” SpeedStarr set the glass down, the little rougher than needed. “My family has a bad history of bonding with horrible conjunxs. I thought I was lucky to break that curse when I met Volt… until the war got in the way.”

“… Speed—”

“ _Ah._ No.” She held up a digit. “We both agreed we wouldn’t feel bad or discuses my problems involving the war. I’m here to be sure you won’t turn out like Blurr’s sire or like his creators.”

A flash of anger went through Shockwave, slamming his servos down on the table. “ _Don’t._ Don’t _ever_ lump me with **_those two_**. They lost their privilege being called creators the moment they began being abusive towards my sparkmate.”

SpeedStarr was quiet a moment before nodding, lifting the glass and downing the rest of the energon. “… Well. At least you’re committed.” She set the empty glass down, locking his digits together and stared at Shockwave with half ladled optics.

Shockwave’s anger vanished. He suddenly felt cold and small, shrinking back a bit by her stare.

“… Has he seen a doctor? For the sparkling’s development?”

“… We… we talked about it a bit. And we both agreed that, while we would like to be assured that things are going well, we can’t take the risk of someone less… accepting finding out about my true identity.”

SpeedStarr sighed, sitting back in her chair as she rubbed her face. “ _Primus._ Why couldn’t you just been a real Autobot named Longarm instead of a Decepticon in disguise?”

“Sometimes I wonder that as well.”

SpeedStarr vented slowly, shaking her helm. “It can’t be helped now. Do you _at least_ have plans for the sparkling when it arrives?”

“A few. I want to see how much it has inherited from my CNA war frame before acting on any of them. If it takes more from Blurr’s Autobot faction, it would be easy to hide their spark signature and hide it open sight.”

“And if it has more of your Decepticon faction?”

“… I have an associate on Kaon who’s willing to watch the sparkling if that happens.”

“And is Blurr okay with this?”

“I promised him that he could visit our sparkling as much as he wanted to see them…” Shockwave vented slowly. “… I really hope it has more of his CNA than mine. I don’t want to send it away.”

“Then send it to live with me.”

Shockwave looked up in surprise.

“Oh don’t look at me like that! It’s my family too you know! If you’re so worried about its safety, then at _least_ you could send it to live with me!”

“B-But—”

“A-a-a-a-a-a-AH! No buts!” SpeedStarr stood up, heading over to Shockwave with an air of authority. “I would trust a strange bot to handle my family just as much as I trust you alone. Which isn’t very much. I would rather have someone from my line to watch over them than give it to some stranger to care for them. And there’s only two bots who I trust from my line to do that. Blurr.” She stopped beside Shockwave, crossing her arms while glaring at the bigger bot. “And _me._ ”

“… You really would just watch over it? Just like that?”

SpeedStarr rolled her optics. Something grabbed Shockwave’s chin, pulling him down so his helm was looking directly at SpeedStarr. “It’s _my_ family Shockwave. It doesn’t matter if it’s half Con or not. There’s nothing I treasure more than family.” Her optics narrowed, her getting cold as she spoke her next words to Shockwave. “ _And if someone tries to mess with my family, they quickly learn why I was called the Demon of Speed in the war. So you better be committed to raising this sparkling along with Blurr and rethink your plan b. Because if I find out that you hurt Blurr in any way. Emotionally or physically._ ” She leaned her helm close, her optics glimmering with a dangerous shine reflected off by the low glow of Shockwave’s red optic. “ ** _I W I L L E N D Y O U P A I N F U L L Y ._** ”

Shockwave shook in his seat, nodding his helm quickly. “Y-Y-Yes ma’am.”

“… Good!” SpeedSatrr smiled, shoving Shockwave’s face away, clapping her servos together as the Decepticon spy tried to get his beating spark to calm down. “Now, have you thought about where you’re going to put the sparkling’s room? It better be close to where you and Blurr recharge cause let me tell you, you two are going to have some rechargeless nights ahead of you! _CAA_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca_ - _ca!_ ”

“ _Primus help me._ ” Shockwave muttered as SpeedStarr started dragging him along.


	8. Talk In The Storm (BlitzBee)

Earth was very strange.

Blitzwing had to admit, he had never encountered a planet such as this one. It was strange. It was different. It was… surprisingly calming. The creatures that inhabit this planet were very fascinating to watch. He didn’t like organics much, but they certainly were fascinating to watch.

Even the Earth had interesting things to view and watch. Like watching the colors of the setting sun, cold frozen water falling from the sky, little bugs that light up at night, or when dark clouds cover the sky with thick bolts of electricity shooting through the air. Watching these things always fascinated him. But what he enjoyed about them more was his Hummel’s reactions to these little things.

He had been here longer, minus the fact he spent fifty of those stellar cycles in suspended sleep, so he often helped explain things to Blitzwing. Like seasons, fireflies, and of course the weather. Each one he explained with a smile or bright joy in his optics as he talked about whatever object he was trying to describe or anything that came to his mind.

It was always so endearing to see his Hummel like that. Though as of lately his Hummel didn’t have that same shine in his optics as before. Nor did he have his usual energy he had. Especially during a bad storm he loved to watch so much.

Outside their secret warehouse, a thickly brewing storm was raging out in the open. Heavy rain fall of water clouded the view as an occasional flash of lightning sparked the sky. If he had to admit, Blitzwing had been taken off guard by the first lightning storm he had seen since arriving on this planet. The second time it rolled by, he had spent megacycles trying to get his Hummel to stay inside, fearing that he would get hurt by a stray lightning bolt. He was alright with his Hummel running around when it was only raining out, but always kept him close when it turned into a thunder storm.

Now however, his Hummel laid splayed out on top of his stomach, venting slowly as he recharged. At any other time, Blitzwing would have been happy that his little lover was relaxing for once and taking it easy. But that wasn’t the case.

His Hummel had been more and more tired recently, and from what Blitzwing could see, he wasn’t over exerting himself or anything. In fact, he took great care not to excite himself too much. Keeping calm as best he could and trying not to speed around like a manic, which was rather odd for Blitzwing to see his Hummel being so calm.

It was almost disturbing.

If Blitzwing didn’t know that his Hummel was sparked, he would have flown him back to his team’s base and have his medic check him over for anything serious. Though he was still rather worried for the spark’s development. He would like to know if things were going okay with the developing protoform and the small spark inside Bee and see if Hummel was doing okay as well.

Hummel was never good at lying under pressure, but he always dodged any questions when they were about his health or past history. Blitzwing knew it wasn’t his place to pry on such personal information, and he wasn’t willing to open old wounds his Hummel spent so long trying to close.

But it didn’t stop him from worrying.

He loved Bee, there was no question about that. They had known each other well before they started dating and before Blitzwing became a triple changer. They both knew it was dangerous to be dating an enemy faction, but Blitzwing could hardly care. His Hummel had wormed his way into his spark, bringing out a better side of himself that he never knew.

But this was also a dangerous thing to do. He was a Decepticon, a bot made for war and destruction. He wasn’t meant to care about an enemy or fall in love with them, but he had. And he didn’t regret it one bit.

That didn’t mean he didn’t worry for his Hummel’s safety. He never wanted his Hummel in any sort of danger. By himself or otherwise. It was a long, hard, difficult talk between them, but eventually he managed to convince his Hummel to try to stay out of any sort of job involving the Elite Guard. Any job involving them would certainly put his Hummel in danger. And he didn’t want that.

Though, now thinking back at it, being a SpaceBridge repair bot didn’t really end the way he had hoped for. What a twist of luck.

Blitzwing vented in slowly, tracing the tip of his digits along Bumblebee’s back strut. Bee hummed in his sleep, pressing closer to Blitzwing’s middle. A smile went across Blitzwing’s face.

And then a particularly loud clap of thunder ruined the moment.

Caught off guard by the sudden loud noise, Blitzwing jerked up, startling Bee awake, almost tumbling off Blitzwing but caught in just the nick of time by his large servos. The pair stared at each other a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Their attention was quickly turned to the outside where a flash of lightning dashed across the sky, bathing everything in white for a brief moment.

It took a moment for Blitzwing to relax, sitting back against the wall and huffing, his face switching to Hothead, muttering under his voice. “Dummes Wetter.”

Bumblebee hummed tiredly, rubbing his optics. Blitzwing looked at him in concern. “Jou alright Hummel?”

“’m fine.” Bumblebee yawned, stretching his limbs a bit. “Tired. But fine.” He looked up at Blitzwing, frowning a bit. “… you’re still here.”

“I am. Vhat about it?”

Bee’s frown deepened. “Aren’t you supposed to be back at your base? I’m not saying I don’t enjoy your company, but Megatron’s sure to notice that you’re gone.”

Blitzwing’s face spun to blue. “Ah. I zee. Zere’s no need to vorry Hummel. Megatron knows I’m not coming back.”

Bumblebee sat up, his optics wide with worry. “What?”

“Zee storm.” Blitzwing pointed to the window. “I’m unable to fly in zuch harsh veather out zere. It’s too powerful to fly zafely zrough. I commed Megatron and told his of my… situation.” _Whirr._ “He zounded unhappy about it, but even I’m not _zat_ crazy to go out fly in a storm like zis! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Visible relaxation went through Bee’s shoulders, smiling a bit. “Oh. Oh that’s good.” He laid back down on Blitzwing, sighing quietly. “So you won’t get hurt when you good back?”

 _Whirr._ “I can expect Megatron vould vant to discipline me vhen I return, but he vill more likely just yell at me or zomething.” Blitzwing shrugged. “Vho knows?”

“You’re not getting in trouble sneaking out to visit me… are you?”

“I vouldn’t vorry about zat Hummel. I don’t get in trouble.” _Whirr._ “Not unless I fail an order! _Zen_ I get in trouble!” _Whirr._ “Megatron know I’m a vild card. No one knows vhat exactly I’ll do next. And neither do I.” Blitzwing paused a moment, looking down at Bumblebee. “Do jou get in trouble vhen jou vere sneaking out to meet me?”

“Na.” Bee waved a servo in the air, huffing a bit. “I got caught only like once or twice, but it was usually by Ratchet. I kept saying that I was looking for Sari’s dad, Professor Sumdac, or just wanting to drive a lap around the city and usually he’d give me a processor full about not being careful or something.”

“And… he bought it?”

“Maybe? I don’t know.” Bee shrugged, flipping himself so his back was against Blitzwing’s stomach. “He might of. Otherwise he would have known earlier before… well.” He placed a servo on his chest. There was a click and his chest plate swung open. “Before they happened.”

Blitzwing hummed, peeking down into his Hummel’s spark. The little red and blue spark was still there, getting bigger by the solar cycle. It was certainly bigger the first time Blitzwing saw it, being no bigger than a dot, but now it was as big as one of those human items Hummel showed him once called a softball before he promptly ate it.

It was moving about slightly, pulsing along with Bee’s spark in a gentle rhythm. “Certainly not zee best vay to tell other’s about being in a zecret relationship vith a Decepticon.” Blitzwing placed a digit under Bee’s spark. “Zough, it’s not zomething I regret.”

“Me neither.” Bee smiled, grabbing Blitzwing’s digit and squeezing it. He was silent a moment, looking at his spark and then to the window. “… Blitz, do you… do you think my team hates me?”

Blitzwing blinked, taken back by the question. “Vhat?”

“Do you think they hate me? My team?” Bee squeezed the digit in his grasp. “For going behind all their backs to see you? Well, Bulkhead knew, but he kinda didn’t approve of us much but—”

“I know Hummel. I know.” Blitzwing shook his helm. There was only one bot who knew about their relationship, and that was the biggest bot of the Autobot team. It was a small slip up and the big bot certainly wasn’t happy about finding out about them, but he kept it a secret mostly for Bee’s sake. He couldn’t say he liked Bulkhead very much, but he did manage to have civil conversations with him if they ever meet up.

He gazed at Bee’s spark, watching the smaller spark drift slowly from right to left. “… I don’t know if jour team hates jou. Upset and confused maybe, but hate is a pretty strong vord. Jou’ve known zem for… a zousand ztellar cycles?” Bee nodded. “A zousand ztellar cycles. I zink zey vould be more hurt zan angry.”

“ _Really angry._ ” Bee muttered softly. Blitzwing frowned, flicking one of Bee’s horns gently.

“Don’t zink like zat. Zee reaction of one bot does not mean zee zame for zee others.”

“But what if it does?”

“… Zen.” Blitzwing’s face switched to Hothead, smiling gleefully with wicked delight. “Zey vill have to deal vith me!” He hugged Bumblebee close. “I von’t let any bot, Autobot or Con, harm jou or our little one! And if anyone zo much as even look at jou zee vrong vay, I’ll tear zeir helms out zrough zeir tailpipes!”

Bumblebee couldn’t help but snort a little, his cheeks heating at Blitzwing’s loud threat. “Alright, alright. Don’t get yourself worked up.” He rubbed the digit, closing his chest plate as he brought the servo up to his face. “Just… just don’t do anything crazy, okay?”

 _Whirr._ “ _Awww!_ But I _like_ being crazy. AHAHAHAHAHA!” _Whirr._ “But I’m zerious. I may not know how zey feel about jou now… but.” Blitzwing lifted Bee up till their helms were touching, looking at each other in the optics. “If zey are anything like jou have told me about zem… zen zey will not hate jou, and in time come to forgive jou.”

Bee looked at Blitzwing, staring deep into his crimson optics. After a moment, he smiled. “Crimson.”

“Hm?”

“Crimson. Crimson Rose.” Bumblebee wrapped his arms around Blitzwing’s neck. “If it’s a femm with your red optics, I want to name it Crimson Rose.”

Blitzwing blinked, thinking the name over. “Crimson… Rose…” He smiled, nodding his helm. “Ja. Zat’s a good name to give it. But vat if it has jour optics instead of mine? Or if it’s a mech?”

Bee smiled, hugging Blitzwing tightly. “Then help me think of some names to name sparky here.”

 _Whirr._ “OH! Oh! I vant to name it Gorge!”

“You want to name it _Gorge?_ ”

“Gorge is a good name to have!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Father's Day to every dad, grandfather, stepfather, and adopted father in the world.


	9. Quick Examination (SwinLock)

Arcarrus VII-X.

At best, it was a neutral standing planet. At worst, it didn’t have the best technology or business deals. But, at least Swindle could be sure he was a _little_ safe on a neutral standing planet.

Autobots and Decepticons were everywhere he looked. Some keeping distances and hanging out with their own kind, but a few were mingling with different factions. He could feel the slim unease in the air, the looks of mistrust in optics of blue and red.

He could count on a single servo of how many bots from different factions that actually had decent friendly conversations. And that wasn’t much.

Something hit against his leg, stopping him in his tracks. Looking down, he spotted a young sparkling picking themselves off the ground. “You okay there kid?”

The sparkling looked up at him, nodding his helm. Their helm turned away from Swindle as a group of sparklings called out to him. The sparkling got to his peds, dustings himself off and waved at Swindle before running off to join his friends. Swindle smiled, shaking his helm as he continued on.

Neutral planets had been getting an increase of sparklings since the war ended. Something that gave Swindle some hope for his own sparkling growing up safely if he ever decided to settle down somewhere.

His smile soon turned to a frown as a building came into view. One that always made his insides feel like slag. Despite its outward plain appearance, Swindle hated it. He stopped in front of the building, staring at it carefully for a few cycles. With a heavy vent, he went inside.

* * *

The inside of the building was just as plain as the outside.

Clean plain walls, sterile air smell, and the standard look of any medical office. The plainness honestly made Swindle gag a little. They could _at least_ put some decorations on the wall, or maybe a plant in the corner. Anything just to give the room something to liven it up a bit.

He was almost itching to make a deal with the femm-bot looking over his systems, but retained his urge. He was just here for a quick check-up on his spark’s development, he didn’t want to stay here longer then needed.

“Okay. Your systems are looking normal Mister Slick.” The femm smiled, setting down the datapad on the table. “Now, shall we get started?”

Swindle put on a small fake grin, opening his chest plate. A real smile crossed his faceplate when his optic caught sight of the small red spark.

The femm walked up to him, looking over the spark with a smile. “Cute little thing. Small too. Are you an orbital cycle in?”

“An orbital cycle and two deca-cycles.” Swindle corrected. The femm nodded and proceeded to go about examining the spark’s condition. Swindle answered every question the femm asked him as she examined the spark and his gestation tank.

Questions like how much metal are you ingesting? How about energon? Have you experienced any low energy moments? Have you been feeling light headed? Pinching in tanks? Memory loss? Stress? Have you been recharging regularly?

Swindle gave her decent answers, keeping them as honest as he could while trying to keep himself calm as she poked around inside his chest, namely around his gestation tank. He was nearing his limit when she removed her servo, disconnecting the wires with a nod and bright smile. “Alright, things are looking good here.”

Swindle sighed, relaxing against the wall.

“Is your conjunx excited?”

“… hmm?” Swindle opened his optic, looking at the femm questionably.

“You conjunx. The sparkling’s sire.”

Swindle’s frame went stiff. “… oh. Uh… I-I don’t have a conjunx. It was… a donation. I have no idea who the sire is.”

“Oh! Oh I’m sorry. I just… well, never mind then.” The femm smiled, trying to act natural as she looked at the datapad. “Everything seems to be going alright with the sparks development. The protoform’s spark chamber is already formed and the nanites are starting to build the rest of it. It’s still too early to tell if it’s a femm or mech though.”

Swindle waved a servo, snorting a bit. “As long as it’s healthy and fine, I don’t care which I get. I just want to be sure everything is going alright in there.”

“Fair enough.” The femm nodded, setting the datapad aside. “Now then. Shall we take a look at your optic?”

Nodding his helm slowly, the face gently held his face still as she took out a light and opened his left optic. Swindle barely flinched as a few sparks came out of his broken optic, having gotten used to it and could no longer feel the pain from it a few solar cycles ago. The femm hissed, looking at his optic carefully.

“This looks like it really hurts.”

“It did.” Swindle shrugged. “For a few solar cycles at least.”

The femm frowned, examining his optic carefully. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get this injury?”

Swindle’s face faltered a bit, looking away with his good optic. “… I… got it in an accident.” He said in a quiet voice, keeping himself still and repeatedly telling himself that the servos touching him weren’t marooned colored. Or shaped into a fist.

Luckily the femm didn’t press on the matter and continued with her examination.

It was an easy fix for his optic. Just a few repairs and the glass replacing, and Swindle walked out like no big deal.

 _At least you’re doing alright in there._ Swindle smiled, placing a servo on his chest. He paused in his walking as a group of sparklings ran past him. One of them ran ahead of the others towards a pair of bots, flinging themselves to one of them and hugging them tightly. His smile faded as the bot bent down, picking the sparkling up and hugged them close, smiling happily at the other bot standing next to them.

Frowning a bit, Swindle turned another direction, transforming and taking off. He needed to get back to his ship, or else he was going to be late with an arms deal on another planet. He tried to keep focus on that and not the family he could see in his review mirror.

And ignoring the deep longing in his emotionally cracked spark.


	10. Shockrr (ShockBlurr)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a sparkling finally makes an appearance!

“ _Beep! Beep! Beep!_ ”

Shockwave groaned, his optic onlining in the darkness. He was tired. Really tired. Grumpy and tired.

“ _Beep! Beep!_ ”

“Yes, yes. I hear you.” Shockwave sighed, slowly sitting up and carefully moving Blurr’s arm off him. The loss of contact from his conjunx, added with the constant small beeps, stirred Blurr awake, opening one of his optics to look up at Shockwave tiredly.

“S… Shockwave?”

“Shh, shh. Easy love.” Shockwave traced the tips of his digits down Blurr’s spinal strut, being mindful not to scratch his paint or cut one of the bandages wrapped around his middle. “Go back to recharging. I got this one.”

Blurr hummed sleepily, closing his optic slowly. “… could be… ‘nother nightmare…”

“Shh.” Shockwave continued stroking Blurr’s back, making slow, gentle traces till Blurr’s body relaxed and his systems slowed down back into recharge. Shockwave’s spark fluttered as Blurr’s soft vents reached his audibles.

“ _Beep! Beeeeeeep!_ ”

“… I heard you the first time.” Shockwave sighed, moving off the berth. He lumbered over to a small container welded in the wall ( _a little gift from Blurr’s grand-carrier, despite Shockwave insistently telling her that they already had a containment unit in the next room_ ) where the constant beeps were coming from.

Peering down, he meet the gaze of deep royal blue optics looking back up at him with coolant pooling down their face. If Shockwave was in his disguise right now, he would have been smiling in pride.

Inside the little containment unit, specifically made for newly emerged sparklings, was his and Blurr’s young sparkling. A little tiny mechling, no older than deca-cycle and four solar cycles old, healthy and strong. Pride filled Shockwave’s spark as he reached inside and removed the sparkling, bringing the little mechling up to his chest and cradled it in his arms.

The little mech whimpered, snuggling deep into Shockwave’s arms for comfort. “Ooh, what’s the matter Shockrr? Did you have a bad recharge?” The large Decepticon cooed gently, wiping away the coolant from the young spark’s optics, mindful of his claws so he wouldn’t scratch his child by accident.

The sparkling babbled in beeps as Shockwave moved out the room so Blurr could recharge peacefully. He moved towards the living room, setting himself down on the couch and took a good look at his offspring.

Shockrr had, by Shockwave’s great relief, inherited more of his carrier’s features than he had of his sire’s, though it was clear that Shockrr was slightly bigger than a normal new emerged. It would still be a few orbital cycles before his outer armor grew in and his helm and features developed more, but straight away Shockwave could see more of Blurr in their sparkling. White faceplate, a little bump on top their helm that would no doubt become an antenna as he grew, five tiny digits on each servo, and deep blue optics.

To any other bot, Shockrr looked like a normal regular Autobot sparkling, which was a great relief to Shockwave on so many levels. Though, he did question were the orange color the protoform skin had come from. Maybe it had something to do with his electronic paint? Or maybe one his or Blurr’s predecessors had orange armor?

Well, it hardly mattered right now. The sparkling was healthy, strong, and, not that he would admit it to any other Con, completely adorable. If his creators were still online, he would have spent megacycles showing off his child to them just to brag how cute he was. He was almost tempted to contact his grand-sire just to show her the newest member of their family.

Key word.

_Almost._

Unlike SpeedStarr, who still disliked him but tolerated him for Blurr's sake, Shockwave had no idea how his remaining family would react to this. Bonded to an Autobot was one thing, but having a child with them? He was sure his spark would be torn from his chest by their grand sire's very servos!

Shockwave shuddered. Ironmist wasn’t the most… stable of Decepticons out there. More than once Shockwave had seen a side to her that had him keeping his only optic open throughout the night. While she was a good teacher and source of comfort for a young spark, Shockwave knew she wouldn’t hesitate to offline him or any other Decepticon for this disgrace.

Sighing, Shockwave hugged Shockrr close to him. The little bot let out a little beep, wrapping their little digits around one of Shockwave’s claws and nibbled on the end, staring up at their sire intently.

Despite himself, Shockwave couldn’t help but chuckle. “You certainly are a cutie. An unplanned cutie, but a cutie none the less.” He stood up, heading for the supply cabinet. “I bet you’re getting hungry. Let’s get you fed and back into recharge, hmm?”

Shockrr beeped as Shockwave grabbed the smallest cube of energon, breaking off a corner of it and pouring it contents in a special bottle. “You know, you really should thank your great-grand carrier when you get older. Despite her great dislike for me, she certainly helpful in sparkling care.” Shockwave placed the bottle close to Shockrr’s intake, watching the sparkling intently as the young mechling grabbed the bottle and began suckling.

Walking back over to the couch, Shockwave settled himself on the furniture. With Shockrr focused on his meal, Shockwave took a glance at his and Blurr’s room. His field reached out towards his bond, trying to find any trances of awareness in Blurr’s field but was relieved to find that Blurr was still deep in recharge, sleeping off the pain and healing from the surgery.

A surgery that neither of them expected to come so soon.

Yes, they had planned on using surgery on a later date when they were sure their sparkling was developed enough to survive outside of Blurr’s gestation tank, but _someone_ decided to come out a lot earlier than either of them expected.

Waking up in the middle of the night to a flaring pain in his spark and his conjunx screaming his voicebox out was not how Shockwave planned to have the sparkling emerge. Luckily, SpeedStarr was still staying with them at the time. Though, unluckily, she thought Shockwave was _attacking_ Blurr.

After Shockwave managed to explain that he _wasn’t_ attacking his conjunx, SpeedStarr had quickly gotten to work helping Blurr. Which was her running to her room and back with her bag in her servos, promptly kicking Shockwave out the room, and locking him out so he couldn’t be there for his spark bond.

Shockwave had not been too happy about the arrangement but had little time to focus on it as his spark flared with pain again. He didn’t remember much after that, only that he tried to ignore the flares of pain while trying to get to Blurr before he finally could no longer stand on his own stabilizers and had to sit down on the couch clutching his chest in pain. It wasn’t long before he passed out from so many flares of pain and woken up by a kick to the helm from his oh-so-loving in-law later.

Though, he hardly minded it when he was more focused on Blurr’s condition. Some part of him swore he made SpeedStarr impressed with the speed he made getting to Blurr, but it hardly mattered when he saw his conjunx and their sparkling.

Their little mechling.

Their tiny, perfect, wonderful mechling.

Shockwave was not a crier, but he did shed a couple of coolant tracks made of pride holding his little one for the first time. And he spent megacycles telling Blurr how wonderful their little creation was and how much he loved both of them so much well into the morning to the next day.

“You certainly have your carrier’s need for speed if you were that impatient to get out.” Shockwave mused, taking the empty bottle away from his tired little one. “But we’ll have to wait and see how much speed you did get from him when you’re able to stand on your own two stabilizers.”

“Beeeeeeep…”

Shockwave chuckled, getting off the couch and heading towards the recharge room. “Oh really? You don’t say.”

“Beeeep beeeeep…” Shockrr sleepily beeped as Shockwave set him gently down in his container, trying to keep his optics open but soon fell into a comfortable recharge not long after.

Making sure that his child truly was sleeping, Shockwave nodded with a satisfied hum, turning to the berth and carefully slipping himself next to Blurr. Blurr sleepily hummed as Shockwave pressed up against him, wrapping his arms around Shockwave’s middle as Shockwave’s own larger longer arms wrapped around Blurr’s body, bringing him close to his chest so that he could snuggle his spark bond. Content that his family was with him, Shockwave quietly went into recharge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Forth of July everyone! Have a safe day and enjoy the fireworks if you can!


	11. Unexpected Visit (BlitzBee)

“Vat are _JOU_ doing here?” Blitzwing was seething with anger.

He had only just arrived at their secret place, wanting nothing more than to snuggle with his Hummel and enjoy his company after a stressful day. Lugnut had been singing Megatron’s praises all day, the Warlord acting like his usual cold self, an encounter with Hummel’s team didn’t end well, and to top it all off, he had to spend thirty six cycles listening to Lugnut ranting about how he was messing with their ‘ _great_ ’ and ‘ _glorious_ ’ leader’s plan. He wanted nothing more than to rip the fool’s helm off if he had continued ranting.

The moment he was able to get away from the base, he immediately took off towards the woods. The thought of being alone with his Hummel already brightened his mood a bit but it dashed when his peds touched the ground with someone was waiting for him outside the warehouse doors. Someone who was not his Hummel.

Standing between him and the warehouse, between him and his Hummel, was the Autobot’s accursed ninja-bot. The black and gold bot stood there, right in front of the entrance, standing with his arms crossed and faceplate neutral of any emotion, unfazed by the large angry Decepticon standing before him.

Blitzwing wanted to scream. Wanting to pound the bot to the ground and beat him into scrap metal. Yet, a larger part of him wanted to rush past the smaller bot and check on his Hummel and developing sparkling. He wanted to scoop them up in his arms and take them far away where he would be safe.

The ninja-bot ( _Prowl if he remembered correctly_ ) stood there silently, watching Blitzwing through his visor. Blitzwing didn’t know how this bot found this place, but he was sure he was here for Bumblebee. The thought of his Hummel being taken from him added fuel to his burning anger.

Gritting his denta, Blitzwing glared red at the ninja. “I zwear, if jou did anything to him _I’ll—!_ ”

The ninja-bot placed a digit against his intake, making a quiet sound. “If you want to speak, please do it quietly. Bumblebee’s recharging.”

Blitzwing face switched, focusing his monocle on one of the windows. He could see his Hummel, recharging peacefully inside the building. Still there. Still safe. Blitzwing let out a deep sigh, relief flooding his systems.

His optics turned back to the ninja, frowning deeply. “Just vat are _jou_ doing here?” His cannons twitched on his back, eager to shoot at the ninja standing between him and his family. “Are jou here to take him back against his vill?” His cannons jerked slightly at the thought

“If I was, wouldn’t I have done that already?”

Blitzwing thought it over a moment before huffing, cooling his temper. “Vat are jou doing here zen?”

“I came here to talk.”

Blitzwing’s optic narrowed. “Talk? Talk about vhat?”

“About Bumblebee.”

“ _Jou—!_ ”

Prowl place a digit to his intake, pointing at the building behind him. Blitzwing gritted his denta, holding back his anger for Bee’s sake. The ninja-bot motioned his arm, turning towards the woods. Blitzwing watched him for a moment before gazing at the warehouse. He was tempted to run in there and grab Bee to take him some place safer.

But where? Where was safer than here? Blitzwing had already searched the woods high and low for another hiding spot, but the only building he could find was already in ruins. And there weren’t any caves that were big enough or suitable to hide a bot his or Hummel’s size.

And Blitzwing was quite honestly done hiding in caves. There were cold, wet, cramped, and hardly had any place to sleep peacefully on. Not to mention the small stones that annoyingly get lodged in the seams of his armor. Those took _megacycles_ to get out without Hummel’s help.

Looking at the warehouse one more time, Blitzwing followed after the black and gold mech.

* * *

_Stay calm._

That was all Prowl was thinking as he walked in silence, trying to listen to anything but the heavy footfalls that followed slowly behind him. He tried thinking that it was one of his friends following him and not a large, short tempered Decepticon. They had been walking for some time, plenty far from the warehouse now that Blitzwing could scream his voice out and hardly disturb Bee.

Venting silently, Prowl looked up at the stars. They all knew Bee had a mechfriend. The young bot always talked about him when he was in a really good mood. But he never mentioned _once_ that his mechfriend was a _Decepticon_ who happened to be _Blitzwing_ of all mechs.

This was bad on so many levels. First being that Bumblebee was technically a traitor for seeing an enemy behind his team’s back and worst of all **_dating_** them. Second was carrying said Con’s offspring. That was a big problem. One that Ratchet vocalized very loudly with his arguments with Prime nearly every solar cycle since Bee left. 

Prowl hadn’t believed it till he saw with his own optics. It was so tiny. So small. It could fit easily in the palm of his servo.

It must have been the reason why Blitzwing hadn’t harmed Bee yet.

The Con had to be only interested in the sparkling and was only waiting till the time was right to take it.

_Stay calm._

No. No that wouldn’t make sense.

Blitzwing was a loyal Decepticon. There was no way he would tolerate having a sparkling with an Autobot. Especially an Autobot like Bumblebee.

Bee was a loud, obnoxious Autobot who could give anyone a helmach just by explaining why water isn’t wet. He was a bot who made other’s question their sanity trying to figure out why he was who he was. He was a bot who didn’t know the definition of staying still and being quiet. There was no chance a Decepticon like _Blitzwing_ , a bot with a short temper with a few screws loose in the processor, could ever tolerate someone like Bumblebee, let alone want to have a sparkling with them.

So then… why?

Stopping, Prowl sighed as the heavy steps halted behind them. Inventing deeply, Prowl slowly turned to face the triple changer, meeting his cold glare with his stone glare.

_Stay calm._

“So.”

“… Zo…”

Prowl waited, seeing who would go first. He had so many questions in his helm, but most them felt like they would set the Con off than give Prowl answers. Bee was hardly any help either earlier. The minibot hardly talked to him, and that was a big sign that something was very wrong if _Bumblebee_ of all bots was being quiet.

It wasn’t as concerning as the deep drained look on Bumblebee’s faceplate. Bee could hardly look at him or let alone keep his optics open. And being warm to the touch, Prowl was sure something was going wrong.

“How.”

Prowl surpassed a flinch, tilting his helm a bit. “How?”

“How did jou find zee warehouse? How did jou find Bumblebee?” Blitzwing’s optic was narrowed, arms crossed over his chest, using his full height to seem intimidating.

Had it been some other bot, they were sure to be afraid of the Con before them. But Prowl was not just another bot, and he was not going to back down in fear. Crossing his own arms over his chest, Prowl kept his face neutral as he spoke in an even easy tone. “I followed the large jet with tank tracks flying into the woods at night.”

Blitzwing’s optic widened slightly.

“I noticed you while out on a nature walk one night and followed you. I was originally thinking that you were returning to base and hoping you would lead me to the Decepticon hideout. Instead, you led me straight to Bumblebee.” Prowl frowned a bit.

He remembered seeing Bee rushed out of the warehouse, running up into Blitzwing’s open arms. Seeing that, he had almost ran out there to grab Bee and get him away from the large Con. But he hadn’t, and only watched them.

Bee had looked so happy, full of energy and life back then. Why didn’t he have that same energy as before?

“… vhen?”

“Almost a deca-cycle ago.”

Blitzwing’s face spun to Hothead, cursing under his voice. “ _Dummkopf! Zhould Have! Ugh!_ ” Blitzwing grabbed his helm, venting harshly.

Prowl waited for the Con to calm down a bit before speaking again. “Do they know?”

“Do Vho Know?!” Blitzwing snapped, his red visor glaring straight at Prowl’s blue visor.

“Do the other Decepticons know about Bumblebee and—”

“Don’t be ztupid.” Icy came back, huffing. “Zey don’t know anything about me or Hummel. _Or_ his current condition.”

“Are you sure?”

Icy was replaced by Random, who giggled and threw his servos in the air. “If zey knew, do jou zink I vould be ztanding here vith all my limbs ztill attached? Zey vould _kill_ me if zey knew!”

A small bit of relief flooded Prowl’s spark. That put some of his worries away, but not all of them. “What—”

“It’s not jour turn!”

Prowl paused, looking at the Con confused. “W-What?”

Blitzwing giggled. “It’s not jour turn to ask a question! It’s _mine!_ ”

Prowl frowned, pretty sure that they never agreed to taking turns asking in questions. “O… kay.”

“Okay! Okay! My question!” Blitzwing laughed before his face spun back to Icy. “Vhat do jou plan to do knowing Hummel’s location?”

The question took Prowl by surprise a bit. “Well… I originally _was_ going tell Prime of Bee’s location.”

“ _JOU—!_ ”

“I said originally. I had planned on waiting for you to leave so I could get Bumblebee out of there to safety… but Bumblebee talked me out of it.” That was a small lie. Bumblebee had begged him not to tell the team where he was, almost breaking into full hysteria when Prowl tried to comm Ratchet. The complete fear and desperation on Bee’s face had been completely out of character for him, which Prowl found startling and uncomfortable.

Blitzwing was silent a moment, glaring at the ground. “… Zo Hummel knows zat jou know vhere he is.”

“I visited during the day when you were away.” Prowl confirmed. “Mostly to make sure he was still there and to be sure he was doing okay…”

Silence hung over them again. Prowl still had plenty of question to ask, mostly about Bumblebee and Blitzwing’s relationship, but it felt odd and too personal to bring up to Blitzwing. He had tried asking Bee, but the minibot avoided the question as best he could, countering it with questions about the team or Sari. That hadn’t been an easy thing to tell him. The team hadn’t taken the news or Bee’s disappearance easy. Especially Prime and Ratchet. Those two had been arguing nearly every solar cycle about what to do. It had gotten to the point where Bulkhead had to take Sari out of the base for long periods of time before either bot cooled down.

“Ah! That reminds me.” Prowl walked forward to Blitzwing, standing right in front of him. “There was something important Bulkhead wanted me to tell you.”

Blitzwing groaned, rubbing his face. “ _Great._ Don’t tell me he knows vhere Hummel is too.”

“No. He doesn’t.” Prowl lifted a servo, waving Blitzwing to come closer. “He only knows Bee is safe. I haven’t told him or Sari where Bumblebee is hiding.”

“Vhat?” Blitzwing leaned down to glare into Prowl’s optic. “Jou told zee organic knows t—”

**_SLAP_ **

Blitzwing’s face spun to Random, holding his cheek and looking at Prowl with wide optics.

“Bulkhead wanted me to punch you between the optics for breaking your ‘promise’ to him. But considering I’m not much of a violent mech, I figured a slap would do just fine. And yes, _Sari_ knows as well.” Prowl glared a little, rubbing his wrist. “They’re really worried about him. And this whole… _thing_ has gotten everyone messed up back at the base.”

“… how bad?”

“Bad.” Prowl huffed, stepping back to give Blitzwing some space. “Prime is taking it hard and worried sick, but Ratchet has been the worst about it. He thinks you’ve tricked or forced yourself on Bumblebee.”

“ _I VOULD NEVER!_ ” Blitzwing screamed, looking completely offended and disgusted by what Prowl had told him. “I Get Zat I’m A Decepticon Vith A Few Blots Zhort Of A Functioning Processor, But Even _I_ Have Zome Ztandards!”

Prowl nodded his helm. “Fair enough.” He went quiet for a moment before looking at Blitzwing. “I’m quite surprised Bulkhead knew about you and Bumblebee.”

Blitzwing’s face spun to Icy, shrugging his shoulders. “He only knew for about two hundred ztellar cycles. He didn’t like it vhen he found out about us and Hummel had to beg him not to tell anyone about us.” A deep frown crossed his face, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t like zeeing him beg. It’s… uncomfortable to zee him like zat. Zcared, vulnerable, it’s not like him! He zhould be energetic, happy, talking my audibles off about everything! He’s more cute zat vay vith zat endearing personality!”

“… cute?”

“Ja! Cute! Cute! Zo cute! Zee vay he talks, zee vay he acts, zee vay he looks and his zoft zmile. It’s all just _zoooo_ cute!”

“… you find Bumblebee… cute?”

“ _Is zere a problem vith zat?_ ”

“No no no.” Prowl shook his servos and helm as Blitzwing glared at him. “I’m just… surprised that you care so much about Bumblebee.”

“Ja! I care lots and lots for my Hummel!” Blitzwing giggled, hopping from one ped to another. “I vant him to ztay his zweetie zelf and hold him close to my zpark forever and ever!”

Prowl looked at the large Con in confusion as he kept ranting how Bumblebee was cute, suddenly realizing Bulkhead’s warning about the Con’s nonsensical talks.

“And zee vay he—” Blitzwing paused. Prowl watched as he took out a datapad, looking down at it with a small frown that slowly turned into a hurt grimace. “Ah. It zeems he’s awake.”

Prowl stepped forward, curious to see what was on the datapad. Blitzwing eyed him only a moment, but surprisingly lowered the datapad just enough for Prowl to see a message on it. Immediately he could tell it was from Bumblebee.

> ʙʟʟʟʟʟʟʟɪɪɪɪɪɪɪᴛᴢ ᴡʜᴇʀ ʀ ᴜ? ᴜ ᴘʀᴏᴍɪꜱᴇᴅ ᴜ'ᴅ ʙ ʜᴇʀ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴜɴ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴅᴏᴡɴ. ɪꜱ ᴜ-ᴋɴᴏᴡ-ᴡʜᴏ ᴋᴇᴘɪɴɢ ᴜ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴀᴛ ʙᴀꜱᴇ?

“U-know-who?”

“Megatron.” Blitzwing clarified, lifting the datapad up and began typing out a quick message. “Hummel couldn’t find anything insulting to call him vithout it giving away vho he vas referring to.” He smiled a bit. “He gave Lugnut zee nickname ‘aft-kisser’. Zee oaf ztill can’t figure it out zat it’s referring to him.”

“You and Bumblebee message each other?”

“On a private link, ja.” Blitzwing tucked the datapad away. “His little messages always brighten my day. Like ‘How are jou?’ or ‘How are jou feeling today?’ and ‘Are jou busy tonight? Do jou want to hang out if jou're free too?’. Just zee zmall zimple zings.” Blitzwing began walking, and Prowl followed after him. “But zey’re very zoughtful. And zometimes, he zends zese funny pictures his organ… zat _Zari_ zhows him time to time.”

Prowl followed after Blitzwing, keeping himself in pace with the Con’s slow steps. “… how often did Bee message you?”

Blitzwing looked to the sky a moment. “… Once a solar cycle or more if I’m able to respond. Ve liked to talk for megacycles vith each other.”

Prowl’s frown deepened, thinking over what Blitzwing said until the Con cut off his thoughts. “Of course ve never talk about anything to do vith zee var or our vork. Just zomething zath goes on in our bases or vhatever just pops into our helms.” His face spun to Random, giggling madly. “Vhich is a lot of zings in my case! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“What things did you talk about?”

Random was quickly replaced by Icy, who hummed a little. “Mostly about how a zlow day vent, or if zomething bugged us zat day. Hummel used to rant about how he hated patrol duty and I vould usually counter it vith an angry rant about Lugnut being a Dummkopf. But usually Hummel talked about all of jou and how his day had been going. He always talked brightly about jou Autobots, even on a bad day vhen he gets grumpy.”

A small smile crossed Prowl’s face as they walked through the forest as Blitzwing described what things Bee messaged him about. Despite knowing he was currently walking next to an enemy who was three times his own height, Blitzwing didn’t seem all that threating when he was talking about Bumblebee.

In fact, Blitzwing seemed happy to talk about Bumblebee and not want pound Prowl into scrap metal as he kept shouting he would do each time he saw him or the team. Prowl though back to what Bulkhead told him just before he left the base.

_“He’s really not all that bad if he’s in a good mood. I don’t trust him completely, but he and Bumblebee really do seem to like each other. Heck, even I had a few nice conversations with him once in a while. I wouldn’t place my full trust in him ‘cause he’s still a Con, but Bee likes him. And he’s known that bot far longer than I have. And I’ve seen Blitzwing care about Bee too.”_

“How long have you known Bumblebee?” The question slipped out before Prowl could stop it.

“Vhen he vas very young.” Blitzwing hummed, smiling a little. “He vas about a zousand and two or so hundred stellar cycles vhen ve met. Just basically ztill a zparkling youngling.” Blitzwing slowly came to stop, his smile fading from his face as a deep look of concern came upon it.

Prowl stopped next to him, looking at him confused by the sudden change of mood. “What’s wrong?”

Blitzwing looked at Prowl, frowning deeply. “… Jou… mentioned zat jou originally planned to take Hummel back and tell jour Prime about him, ja?”

“… yes, I had originally planned on doing that. But as I said, Bumblebee convinced me not to.”

The bigger robot was quiet for a moment, inventing slowly before speaking again. “… could… could it be possible for jou to talk to jour Prime? Let him know zat Hummel is fine, o-or well? Perhaps jou could c-convince him to meet vith Bee calmly? He’s a rational calm bot, ja?”

Prowl looked at Blitzwing, confused and slightly worried why he would be asking him to talk to Prime. “Why?”

“Jour medic, Ratchet. He…” Blitzwing tapped two of his digits together, looking more and more uncomfortable. “He’s knowledgeable, yes? Good at medical ztuff but vith a bad temper?”

“… yes?”

“And, Prime is good at keeping his calm ja? Able to talk vith him and keep his temper down?”

Prowl’s visor stare at Blitzwing for a good long moment. “… why would you want Prime to keep Ratchet calm? Why bring him into this conversation?”

Blitzwing glanced off to the side, bowing his helm a little. “… I zink… I zink zere’s zomething going vrong vith Hummel’s gestation tank.”


	12. Night Talk (SwinLock)

> _Hey Swindle!_
> 
> _Been a long time since we last saw each other! It’s been, what, a hundred, two hundred, four hundred stellar cycles since we spoke in person? I don’t remember. But I certainly remember that old weapon you gave me! Still works like a charm! Not the best condition but still functional!_
> 
> _Anyway, I heard you were in the area from one of my pals and I thought, Hey! We should hang out together! That is, if you’re brave enough to go a round against me! Ha! But, seriously, I want to see you again. Have a drink and talk about the good old times._
> 
> _You know how to contact me if you want to meet up!_
> 
> _From, LightWinger_

A deep frown was on Swindle’s face as he read the message one more time. He hadn’t heard from LightWinger in a long time, yet if anything he knew of her, she was bound to be the same old Decepticon he knew.

Loud. Nosy. Very blunt to the point. A hardcore party machine. And one of the heaviest drinkers he knew.

In short, she was one of his worst customers he ever had to deal with. Good or bad day be damned if he ever saw her or heard from her again. She could turn anything he had into a game or a complete nightmare!

There was no way he was going to meet up with her! Absolutely not!

* * *

“I can’t believe you dragged me out here.”

“Well, it was either that or sling you over my shoulder and carry you out here.”

Swindle narrowed his optics at the large speckled green femm sitting beside him. “Do that, and you’ll never get another weapon from me ever again.”

LightWinger shrugged, taking a swing at her bottle of high grade energon. A small part of Swindle grimaced at the smell of the high grade, his tank turning with the feeling of thick oil gunk in it. “Doubt I’ll ever need a weapon now. These past couple of stellar cycles have been rather… peaceful? I guess? Not a lot of fights going around between Cons and Bots these solar cycles. ‘Cept between Strika and the current Magnus. What was his name again? Sentinel?”

Swindle snorted, shaking his helm. “Oh Primus no, he was the _temporary_ Magnus, and he was only in power for less than two stellar cycles. How he managed that while being a terrible Magnus I will never know. No, the current Magnus you’re thinking about is named Optimus.”

LightWinger snapped her digits, pointing at Swindle as she downed the rest of the bottle’s contents. “ _That’s_ right. Optimus Magnus Prime. The bot who managed to beat Megatron and make a peace treaty with most of the Decepticons.” She looked into the empty bottle, smashing it against her helm. Glass stuck to her faceplate, leaking energon from her systems. “Kinda crazy how a bot like him could get a big old Con like Blitzwing to switch sides. He must have been even screwier than anyone thought.”

“Actually, I heard there was a different reason for that.” Swindle gazed down, looking at the scene below him. Both Cons were sitting on top a large, high class looking building. One that he could tell belonged to some important, if not snobbishly rich Autobots. Sure he liked the fancy stuff, but he never liked to flaunt it around like this where it was an open target. Just the nice luxuries and fine works that made him slick and younger than he actually was.

“What? … Oh right! Something about a uh, uuuuuuuh… a sparkling, right? It was a sparkling?”

“… yeah…”

“Yeah, that sounds right.” LightWinger threw the remaining shards of glass over her shoulder. “Crazy huh? One of Megatron’s top fighters, gone rogue for a sparkling. Just goes to show how far any bot will go when there’s a new spark on the line.”

Swindle turned his gaze away, lightly touching his chest.

“… So how far along are you before your sparkling emerges?”

Swindle flinched, twisting his helm around to stare at the large femm with wide optics. “W… W-What?”

“I’m not _dumb_ Swindle. I may be high and a little loopy right now.” LightWinger pointed her digit at Swindle’s chest. “But I can always tell when a bot is carrying.”

Swindle pushed the digit away, frowning deeply. “How?”

“You got this.” LightWinger lifted her servos, waving them around Swindle’s frowning frame. “Feeling around you. Like an aura, or a special kind of energy signature seekers like me can pick up on bots who are carrying new sparks in them.” She grinned, leaning close to Swindle. “But I never took you as a bot who would want to be a carrier.”

“Oh shove off!” Swindle huffed, shoving LightWinger’s face away. “I didn’t _plan_ to get sparked! It just sort of… happened.”

LightWinger hummed, grinning audible to audible. “Let me guess~ Got high on high grade and had a one night stand?”

“No.” Swindle glared at the ground. “It wasn’t on high grade, and I wasn’t high.”

“You got jumped?”

“Wha-?! NO! It was! Ugh!” Swindle grabbed his helm, venting slowly to get his emotions under control. “… It was an act of trust that got broken.”

“… ouch. They didn’t take the news well?”

Swindle sighed, looking at the stars. “They wouldn’t even let me _explain_ , let alone give me enough time to tell them it was _theirs_.”

“Double ouch.” LightWinger placed a servo on his shoulder. “Sorry to hear that man.”

Swindle shrugged. “Eh. Wouldn’t have worked out anyway. They hate sparklings.”

“Okay, now _that’s_ cold. I don’t like sparklings much, but I’m a proud sire of two! Both of with two different bots!”

“I never did ask how your trine was doing.”

“Eh, they’re fine.” LightWinger waved her servo, leaning back. “Strips is taking care of Flinter, and SkyRider finally got little Ember to say the word frag.”

Swindle’s face scrunched up, looking at LightWinger in confusion.

“What? Swearing is a common thing between all of us. It ain’t bad to say slag.”

“… rrrrrriiiiiight.” Swindle made a mental note to keep words like that far from his sparkling when they arrived.

“Anyway, your sparkling. When’s it coming?”

“… a little less than four orbital cycles now.” Swindle huffed, looking at the bots down below. “I’m still rather early. And I still need to find a good place to raise them.”

“… wait. You’re gonna raise them? On your own?” LightWinger frowned at him. “Swindle, I know you’re a capable bot, but you got to know you can’t do something like that.”

“What? Are you pulling on my crankshaft?”

“Swindle, do you know who you are?”

The question caught Swindle off guard a bit. “… Well, yeah. I know who I am.”

“No, I mean. Do you _know_ who you are?”

“Are your audibles glitching? I—”

“I heard what you said, but let me spell it out for you. You’re _Swindle_. The arms dealing, scruple stealing, weapons expert, Con trading, number one bot who sold weapons and arms deals to Decepticons everywhere. You’re an agent for nearly fifty seekers with myself included in there, twenty grounders, and have black market deals with the underground system. Heck, you’re the most well-known one bot black market out there!”

Swindle thought over her words, thinking through them carefully. “… okay, yeah. That defines me, but it—”

“ _Think_ about it. What am I compared to you? I’m just a normal Decepticon who didn’t partake in the war or have anything important to my name to get bots to notice me. But you? You’re a well-known big shot who’s known nearly by every Decepticon and Autobot alike! _And_ a wanted mech! Swindle, you’re going to be on the run from Elite Guards and bounty hunters alike wanting to collect your bounty, dead or alive, and you think you can care for a sparkling in a world like that? Even more on your own?”

Swindle was quiet. LightWinger’s words rung in his head. Loud and clear. There’s was a heavy truth to her words. Words that Swindle didn’t want to hear, but needed to hear. His servos clutched his chest, over his spark chamber where his little small spark laid deep in his own.

“… Look. I don’t want to scare you Swindle, but I think it’s best that you rethink about this whole sparkling plan thing. You can’t raise a sparkling. It’s too dangerous. My family is safe from any harm, but you’re an open target if you really want to commit to caring for the new spark. I think you should give it up to an orphanage or someone who—”

“ ** _NO!_** ”

LightWinger jumped, staring at Swindle with wide optics as he stared back at her with his arms covering his chest.

“… I mean. N-No. Thanks but… I’m not giving this kid up.” Swindle stood, taking a step back from the larger Con. “I think I should go now. I have some place to be.” Turning around, Swindle headed off.

“… Think about what I said Swindle. If you really value your life and the kid, you best think about what’s best for both of you. And it ain’t together, that’s for sure.” LightWinger called out to him as he walked away.

Swindle bit his lower lip, trying hard not to think about her words.


	13. Photos (ShockBlurr)

“Beep beep! Beep beep beep!”

“Oh/really?”

“Beep beep beep beep! Beep! Beep Beep!”

“Huh!/You/don’t/say!”

“Beep! Beep beep!”

“Well/that’s/certainly/good/to/know!”

“Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep beep! Beep beep! Beep!”

“I’ll/be/sure/to/relay/the/message/to/them/once/they/get/back.”

“Beep!”

Blurr smiled as he placed a kiss on top of his sparkling’s head. Shockrr beeped, patting Blurr’s chin. The blue bot laughed, nuzzling his helm against his sparkling. “Oh/you/are/too/cute./Yes/you/are!”

Shockrr let out a happy beep, enjoying his carrier’s affection. His carrier was warm and caring, holding him close to the familiar warm thrumming feeling he recognized but didn’t understand.

Blurr smiled, watching his sparkling babble in sparkling talk. Shockrr was a very energetic sparkling, very much like him, and ‘talked’ a lot like him too. Though, it would be a while before he could formulate proper words and speech patterns. And he secretly hoped that his first word was carrier instead of sire.

The thought of Shockwave made Blurr sigh, looking around the room. As much as Shockwave wanted to spend time with him and their sparkling, he still was the head Prime of the Intelligence and had to be there working. Blurr wanted to go with him, but Shockwave was adamant that he stayed in their apartment and rest.

He loved Shockwave, but he was a bot of speed. He didn’t like being forced to stay in one place for a long time. Never mind that he could stay in vehicle mode for stellar cycles on end, he still had the privilege to _move._ His smile grew as he looked back at Shockrr.

“Just/wait/till/you’re/big/enough/to/stand./I/bet/you’ll/be/running/circles/around/everyone/once/your/stabilizers/are/strong/enough/to/hold/you.” Blurr brushed his digits under Shockrr’s peds, earning a squeal of laughter from the sparkling which made Blurr giggle a bit. “I/wish/Shockwave/was/here/instead/of/at/work./Maybe/I/should/call/him…/no.” Blurr sighed, hugging his sparkling close to his chest. “He’s/probably/engulfed/in/his/job./Best/not/to/distract/him./I/wonder/if/he’s/thinking/about/us/though?”

* * *

“ _Daaaaaaaaawwwwww~!_ ”

“And here’s a picture of Shockrr snuggling next to Blurr while he’s recharging.” Longarm smiled as he brought up a picture with Blurr laying sprawled out on the couch, fast asleep with little Shockrr sleeping on top of his chest. The group of Autobot’s around him cooed at the sweet sight of the photo.

Even grumpy Cliffjumper cracked a small smile at the photos Longarm showed. News about his sparkling reached nearly every Autobot in his work vicinity and immediately flocked to him the moment he had returned to work to know everything about the little mechling.

While no one knew of his true identity, Longarm was more than happy to show off a few of the many photos he managed to take of his family. His favorite photo was the one of Shockrr, Blurr, and him in his true form snuggling together the night the sparkling had emerged. He would never show it to anyone of course, but he did keep a copy of it next to his spark chamber as a good luck charm.

“Dang, that’s one cute kid Arm.” A visiting Elite Guard bot commented, smiling at the cute photo. “And I’ve seen plenty of ‘em back in the day.”

“Oh? Did you watch over sparklings when you were younger Jazz?”

“Naw man. The dojo I used to train at used to care for young sparklings that had no home or family.” Jazz smiled a bit. “Before the war thing happened, the dojo was a safe haven for orphaned and abandoned sparklings. Most of the time they were kept there till they were old enough to care for their own, but sometimes they stuck around for special training.”

“Really? Well that’s interesting.” Longarm nodded.

“Hey Longarm! When’s Blurr coming back?” A random bot asked.

“Oh he’s still recovering. He won’t be back for another orbital cycle or so.”

“What’s the sparkling’s name?” Another asked.

“We’re calling him Shockrr.”

“Shocker?”

“Yes. That’s Shock with a double r at the end.”

“Why Shockrr?”

“Well having a surprise sparkling was certainly a _shocker._ ” The bots around him let out a small sets of giggles and laughs. Longarm smiled, happy that the Autobots bought his small lie. While, yes, Shockrr was a surprise sparkling, it wasn’t why they named him that. It was because Blurr had the brilliant idea to combining parts of their names together for their sparkling, and he had to admit, he liked it very much.

“Anyway, that’s enough photos for now.” Longarm put the datapad away in his subspace, earning a round of disappointed groans from his coworkers. “We wasted enough time as it is. Everyone, back to work.”

The crowd slowly departed, leaving only Longarm, Cliffjumper, and Jazz in the hallway.

“Crazy how one little sparkling could gather such a big crowd in one building.” Jazz commented as he and Longarm went to his office. “Not a whole lot of have seen a sparkling before since the war.”

“Why not? Cybertron has the resources and the requirements needed to raise sparklings.” Longarm asked, remembering the harsh world he had to struggle growing up in.

“True. But after the protoforms were stolen during the war, most bots are more concerned about impending doom of another war and raising a sparkling can take a lot of resources and time to grow into adult fighters.” Jazz shrugged. “It’s been stellar cycles, but everyone’s hung up on the idea that Decepticons are planning something, like an invasion or another war.”

Longarm sighed, setting himself at his desk. “I doubt they would do something like that. Something tells me they wouldn’t have enough resources or firepower to pull off something that major.” _Not unless they did a sneak attack on Cybertron itself in one night._ Longarm thought. _And Megatron would happily lead you all to the Well of AllSparks himself. Minus Blurr of course._

“Well, whatever their gig is, it probably ain’t going to be pretty.” Jazz huffed. “Still, it’s nice to see that there’s still a bit of bright hope in this world.”

Longarm smiled, gazing over to the pair of holographic photos on his desk.

One photo was of him and Blurr, smiling happily in the photo with Blurr’s arm’s wrapped around Longarm’s shoulders, taken an orbital cycle before Longarm asked Blurr to be his conjunx. If one were to look carefully at the photo, they would probably notice the red gem on Longarm’s forehead glowing brightly and a certain shine of light that looked like an iris gazing lovingly at Blurr.

The second photo was of Shockrr, taken on the day his optics first opened to the world. Shockrr was only seven solar cycles old when his optics opened, the little meching starring up in the photo while chewing on his servo. His big deep blue eyes were filled with curiosity for the world he was brought into, bright and full of innocence. Innocence Longarm swore to protect for a long time with his very spark.

“Yes. There certainly is a bright hope.” Longarm smiled, his red gem glowed lowly at the thought of his fellow kind returning to Cycbertron and his life with Blurr and their sparkling in that world.


	14. Return (BlitzBee)

_“I don’t know vhat to do. Ve both know zomething must be vrong. He’s varm to zee touch, his energy is very low, and he hasn’t been eating zee various metals I bring him. I once zaw him purging behind zee varehouse and he tried to play it off like nothing vhen I brought it up. He’s stubborn and tries to make himself zeem fine, but I can tell zere’s zomething vrong and he can’t hide it anymore… I know jou don’t trust me, but please. I need jou to help Hummel. He won’t listen to me vhen I zuggested he return to jou Autobots and I don’t vant to force him. Maybe he vill listen to jour leader? Or jou?”_

_Unlikely._ Prowl thought bitterly. He knew Bee would hardly listen to him. He had tried talking to Bee before confronting Blitzwing to get the bot back to the team. But Bumblebee being… well, _Bumblebee_ , convincing the young scout had not been easy.

Heck, it took a few solar cycles to even get _close_ to the minibot without him trying to run away! The first time Bumblebee saw him, Prowl had spent cycles chasing Bee around as the yellow bot screamed his helm off as he ran before the ninja finally pinned him to the ground. And even after that, it took megacycles for him to calm down and not freak out when he saw him.

Despite the long time it took, Prowl managed to get Bee to trust him enough to be close. Having need to promise not to tell anyone where he was, especially Ratchet. The medic hadn’t taken finding out that Bee had been sparked by a Decepticon very well and had been very vocal about it. Prime had tried calming the old bot down, but that only got the medic riled up even more to the point that the two would get in frequent vocal arguments that led to them needing to get physically separated before a physical fight broke out between them.

The two could no longer look each other in the optics let alone stay in the same room before one of them snapped and started arguing again. The only time they properly worked together, or at least tolerated each other long enough, was when they were all out on a mission. Anything after that, one would lock themselves in their room the moment they returned to base and stay there for megacycles.

Which led to here. Prowl stood outside Prime’s room, gazing at the door intently. It had taken him a few solar cycles, but he finally managed to gain enough courage to talk to Optimus. He wasn’t scared of Prime, there was no reason for him to be. Optimus was by far the calmest, most polite, soft spoken bot Prowl had ever known.

_Minus the time where he got angry finding out about the Dinobots._

No, if he was honest, Prowl was having a hard time trying to find a way to tell the Prime about Bumblebee. Optimus had been worried sick for the young scout ever since losing touch with Bee. He had been a little… upset finding out about Bumblebee’s condition, but it only lasted a few solar cycles before his worry and concern won over. Prowl had kept count of all the night the leader had spent staying out looking for Bee and had to be brought back to base by Bulkhead or himself.

He had even mistaken Fanzone’s car for Bee a few times.

Steeling himself, Prowl brought his servo up to the door, knocking his knuckles gently on the metal, quiet enough not to sound rude but loud enough to be heard.

“ _Whoever it is, please come back later. I’m not in the mood right now to deal with anything right at the moment._ ” Prime’s tired voice called through the door.

“It’s just me.” Prowl put his servo down, keeping his voice calm as he spoke. “In need to have a quick word with you.”

“ _… Are you going to try to talk me into talking to Ratchet again Prowl? Because I **really** don’t want to deal with him right now._”

“No, not this time. Though this could involve him.” _Depending on how you’ll take the news._ He added silently. “Can I come in? This is something I need to talk to you privately about.”

There was a bit of silence for a few moments before he heard a heavy sigh. “ _Alright. Come in._ ”

Opening the door, Prowl carefully stepped inside, making sure to close it behind him for some privacy. He didn’t necessarily need to worry about Bulkhead or Sari overhearing their conversation as they were not in the base and he had already informed them about Bee, though kept his whereabouts hidden from them. Ratchet however was still in the base, but thankfully he was locked up in the medbay, so it was unlikely that he would listen in though Prowl still wanted to be sure to have as much privacy as he could with Prime.

Speaking of whom, Optimus was sitting on his berth, shoulders hunched and back arched. His axe was currently in one servo as the other servo was sharpening the edge with a whetstone. There was a deep frown on his face with a heavy look in his optics. He looked up from his weapon only a moment to acknowledge Prowl’s presence before gazing back at his weapon.

The ninja took a quick glance around the Prime’s room. Everything was neat and orderly, though he could see some places hadn’t been touched in a while with the small amount of dust collecting on the surface. The only places dust free was the floor with a cut path in it and the berth Optimus was currently sitting on.

“This room could use some more light in here.” Prowl glanced at the windows, noticing how dim the room was.

Optimus shrugged, putting the whetstone down and his axe away. Silence filled the room. Uncomfortable silence that lacked the normal energy and friendly atmosphere the Prime usually had around him.

Shifting weight from one ped to another, Prowl tried to find the best way to start the conversation. “… Things have been qu—”

“Look Prowl, I really don’t feel like talking too much right now.” Optimus cut in, sighing a bit, picking up the whetstone and stood up. “And I really don’t want any company. Can you please just… tell me what’s so important that you needed to speak to me about already?”

Prowl frowned. He could tell that trying to be gentle was not going to work on the Prime at the moment. So, he figured he had to ‘rip the band-aid off’, as Sari put it, and just be blunt. “I know where Bumblebee is.” 

The look on Prime’s face was unreadable as the whetstone fell out of his loose grip.

* * *

 _He’s late._ Blitzwing glanced out the window for the twentieth time. The sun was nearly set, and there still wasn’t any sign of the ninja bot. _I’m going to tell him today he said. I’ll be there before the sun is down to pick Bee up he said._ The Con huffed. _Such a Lügner._

His gaze shifted down to his arms, frowning deeply with concern. Bumblebee was curled up in his arms, sleeping uncomfortably against his chest with heavy venting, mostly due to the large amounts of heat coming from the bot’s chest that held the small life inside. Blitzwing had tried cooling down his small mechfriend’s frame with his ice abilities, but that only provided the younger bot a small amount of relief for a brief time.

Biting his lip, Blitzwing gazed out the window again. The sun was nearly gone in the horizon. And still no ninja in sight.

“Scheiß drauf.” Blitzwing hissed, easing up carefully not to jostle his Hummel too much. “Jou place jour trust in one bot, and he doesn’t even show up.” Blitzwing walked towards the doors, shifting himself carefully so he could crouch down enough to pass through them without dropping his Hummel.

He almost did when an axe pressed itself against his neck cables the moment he stepped out of the building.

Blitzwing froze, his optic slowly trailing down the axe’s handle to the servo holding it in an iron tight grip till red crimson meet burning blue.

A very very angry blue.

“Put him down Decepticon.” The bot ( _Optimus_ ) growled behind his battle mask, looking ready to cut Blitzwing’s neck cables if he made one wrong move.

Blitzwing carefully thought his options over. Thinking he could either a) kick the red and blue bot away which would most likely start a fight that could end badly, b) mock the Autobot for thinking that he could even threaten him which could led to a fight and end badly, c) turn tail and run, put his Hummel somewhere safe, return, and fight… which would end badly… for the Autobot. Or he could just listen to the Autobot and put his Hummel down…

 _The first three options actually sound good all together._ Blitzwing thought, itching to kick the Prime in the knees and run. His focus was broken when he felt his Hummel shift in his arms.

“… mm… blitz?” Bumblebee mumbled, cracking his optics open slightly. “whaz going…” Bee’s optics landed on the axe, blinking at it owlishly for a moment before gazing at the owner at the weapon. “… oh… hey boss bot… howz… howz going?” Bee lifted one servo and waved it weakly, smiling happily.

A flash of concern was in Optimus’s optics before turning his glare back on Blitzwing. “Put him down. Now.” He repeated, his voice filled with anger and fierce will of protection.

 _Option d it is then._ Blitzwing slowly lowered himself to one knee, gently placing the yellow bot on the ground and backing away with his servos in the air.

The red and blue bot didn’t relax as Blitzwing backed away from the young scout, though he did kneel down to Bee and cradled him in one arm. Optimus looked away from Blitzwing to Bee, optics widening with worry as he held the bot close. “ _Primus_ Bumblebee, you’re burning up.”

“m… not.” Bee mumbled, trying to keep his optics open but greatly failing.

Despite knowing his Hummel was in capable servos now, Blitzwing wanted nothing more than to grab his Hummel back and hold him close to comfort him. But the angry glare the Prime was shooting at him kept him in place, so he kept his distance.

“… he… he hasn’t been vell for zee past couple of zolar cycles.” Blitzwing spoke quietly, keeping his gaze locked with the Prime. “He needs help. Badly.”

The Prime gave him a nasty glare, turning his helm to look over his shoulder. “When were you going to tell me about this?”

Blitzwing looked at the trees, spotting the ninja not far off. _Finally showed up huh?_ Blitzwing shot him a small glare.

Prowl looked a bit uncomfortable by the glares being thrown his way. “I tried to tell you, but—”

“Never mind.” Optimus sighed, scooping Bee up in one arm. “We’ll talk about this later.” He returned his glare on Blitzwing.

The Decepticon stared at him a moment then at the ninja bot before looking back at his Hummel. Bee had going into recharge against Prime, unaware of his surroundings or the fact that his leader was holding him now and would likely return him to the team.

A team that would keep him safe and help him.

Blitzwing clenched his servos, taking a step back before turning on his heels and taking off into the night sky. Trying hard not to look back at the shrinking view of his Hummel or think about the acing pain in his spark knowing he had just abandoned his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation:
> 
> Liar
> 
> Screw it.


	15. Wrestling Bets (SwinLock)

_You’re Swindle. The arms dealing, scruple stealing, weapons expert, Con trading, number one bot who sold weapons and arms deals to Decepticons everywhere._

_I’m just a normal Decepticon who didn’t partake in the war or have anything important to my name to get bots to notice me. But you? You’re a well-known big shot who’s known nearly by every Decepticon and Autobot alike! And a wanted mech!_

_You’re going to be on the run from Elite Guards and bounty hunters alike wanting to collect your bounty, dead or alive._

Those words rung in his helm, no matter how hard he tried to tune it all out. It was hard to think clearly with those words filling every corner of his helm, nagging at him so much it was hard to concentrate during deals.

It was starting to become an annoyance.

Growling, he sat up from his berth, rubbing his faceplate in irritation. He felt tired, irritated, and annoyed all at once. And hungry. Really really hungry.

Sighing, Swindle swung his legs off the berth, hopping off to head for the supply room of his ship. Honestly, why did he even have a supply room on his ship in the first place? He was a walking endless storage bot. He could just stuff his container with all sorts of items and have enough room for something to munch on.

… whatever. He didn’t feel the need to question his own motives right now.

 _So, what’s on your menu for tonight kid?_ Swindle opening one of the storage boxes, looking at the metals stored inside and grabbing the ones that made his tank begging for them and drool a bit on sight, popping them in his intake. _Better. Much better._ Swindle smiled as his hunger faded till he was final content. “Gold and silver. Not a bad combo. But a little on the soft side.”

Humming, Swindle licked his lips, closing the lid and headed for the room he had turned into his personal lounge. For being a pervious Elite Guard ship once, he had made a few touches here and there, adding a few things that gave it a bit more homey feeling and styled to his liking with a few souvenirs of each planet he’s been to. His personal favorite was the large tree in the corner of the room. A little something from his time on Earth.

Personally, he didn’t have a lot of good memories on that planet thanks to a certain team and rag-tag group of villains. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t some things there that he didn’t enjoy. Like the roguish appeal the little planet had to it.

Casting the tree a quick smile, Swindle sat down on the plush couch he swiped from Nortix/5, sighing as he sunk into the soft rich fabric with a deep sigh while propping his peds up on the table. Normally, Swindle wouldn’t be caught dead looking this unprofessional and lazy, but thankfully he had finished all his schedule business deals yesterday, so he was free for a whole orbital cycle to relax and focus on the kid’s development in his tank.

Brushing his digits over his chest, Swindle grabbed the remote. “Just going to be you and me for a while. So how about we just sit back, relaxed, and try to forget our worries for a bit?” Pressing a few buttons, the room’s lights dimmed down as soft smooth music drifted in the air. Offlinning his optics, Swindle sunk deeper into the plush cushions, sighing with idyllic as his systems relaxed.

Swindle hummed, cupping his chest with a soft smile on his faceplate. He let himself get lost to the music, humming along to a few of the notes as his digits rubbed the glass of his hood, tracing around the glass and seems of his golden armor.

Gold. Golden armor. Swindle briefly wondered if his sparkling would have golden armor like him. Or maybe purple. Purple and gold maybe? Swindle chuckled, imagining the sparkling with his colors running around with red optics.

Red optics. His smile faded. The sparkling would most defiantly have red optics, an inherit trait from the sire.

 _Don’t think about him._ Swindle shook his helm. _He’s not worth it. He doesn’t want you._ Swindle pressed both of his servos over his chest. _He threatened to kill you if he ever saw you again. And you know he wasn’t joking._

Swindle shivered before shaking his helm harshly. No. He shouldn’t think about that fragger. Lockdown already made his decision and so had he. There was no point to think about the past. All he wanted to do now was sit back, relax, and not focus on anything—

**_Beep Beep_ **

Swindle jumped, snapping his optics online. A message appeared on his HUD, catching the merchant off-guard for a bit before frowning and opening the message. To his surprise, it was an ad to a wrestling match.

A big flashy well detailed ad. With fine colors, enticing words, and very clearly well marketed ad.

An ad that screamed scam to Swindle.

Seriously, Swindle had been in the business deal long enough to see a scam laid right out in front of him. Plenty of bots had tried to trick him in the past, but not one of them had ever managed to swindle Swindle in his own game. Primus, Swindle was his _name_. You would think bots would take a hint with a designation like that.

… Still, Swindle did enjoy seeing bots beat the slag out of each other. And he wasn’t scheduled to meet another client for a while. And he did like placing a bet or two…

* * *

_This. Is. So. **Boring**._

Swindle frowned deeply as bots all around him cheered with excitement. Down below inside a cage, two strong looking mechs were fighting, throwing punches at each other and slamming to the ground with hot anger, the sheer force of their power and size shook the stadium Swindle and all other watches were standing on.

And it was all fake.

Swindle may not be a fighting mech, but even he could see this match was staged. He spotted many missed punches, fake swings, and clearly practiced time attacks that made a mockery of a real fight. For goodness sake! He had literally seen Decepticons fight better than this! He even sold weapons to them so they could keep fighting and buy more of his ware to continue fighting!

 _This was so not worth my time._ Swindle bitterly sighed, leaning against the railing. _I should have stayed on the ship than watch this scrap._ Leaning back, Swindle stretched a bit, watching a one mech was tossed over the bigger mech’s helm. _The bet I placed better be worth this in the end. I paid a good amount for it and I better—_

Swindle blinked. There was an odd feeling of being stared at on the back of his helm.

Glancing around, his optics landed on a bot looking directly at him. A few rows behind him to his left. A mech with light green optics was staring right at him. Swindle raised an optic ridge. Why was that bot staring at him? Shouldn’t he be more focus on the fight? Granted, the fight wasn’t all that interesting as the ad made it out to be. But why was the bot even looking at him?

He didn’t focus long on the mech and turned his attention back on the match, trying hard to ignore the feeling of optics on the back corner of his helm. He watched the fight continue for a few more cycles before looking back at the mech.

Did the bot move closer? Swindle frowned, looking away again for another cycle or two before gazing back at the mech. Yep. That bot was defiantly getting closer to him. Back and forth, Swindle looked between the match and the bot, trying to tell his racing mind that the bot was most likely just getting closer to watch the match better when there was a big screen hanging from the ceiling for all bots to watch.

When the bot stood next to him a foot away, Swindle was really tempted to fling himself over the railing. Fixing his optics on the match, Swindle tried to ignore the bot next to him as best as he could. Five cycles passed before Swindle glanced at the mech again, locking his purple optics with green.

Swindle stood frozen, staring at the bot next to him. The mech was silver with deep blue highlights. He was lanky looking, though he was actually shorter than Swindle by just a few inches. His helm was rounded with an interesting helmet that curved on the edges and had a five pointed star detail on the center. His faceplate was a dusted blue, and his green optics were big and narrowed at Swindle.

The way the mech was looking at him made Swindle feel uneasy. So uneasy, Swindle tried to put on his best charming smile, but it came out more like a sad excuse of a flimsy smirk, holding out a servo for the mech to shake. “Hi there! The name’s Swindle. And you are?”

The mech was silent. Sensing that the mech wasn’t going to shake his servo, Swindle withdrew it, swallowing a bit. He glanced down at the match below, waving his servo towards the fighting mechs. “Some fight right? Though I wouldn’t really call this a fight. It’s more like a bad acting play that bots think is good.” Swindle chuckled a little. “But really? It sucks.”

The mech narrowed his optics more, and the merchant quickly turned his gaze away just as the final bell rung, signaling the end of the match. Swindle decided he had enough for today. Turning on his heels, Swindle hurried out of the stadium, collecting his winnings and didn’t look back once at the mech.

“Primus that mech was scary.” Swindle huffed as he left the building, looking at his winnings in his servos. “And the match was so not worth it. That fight was completely ridged!” The arm’s dealer huffed, counting his winnings as he walked down the empty street. Unaware of the red optics following him in the shadows.

He didn’t noticed that he was being followed until something hard hit him in the back of his knee followed by a sharp painful shock. A silent scream tore out of him as Swindle fell to the ground on his knees and servos, dropping his winnings to the ground.

“Ho-ho! Look at the cash on this one boys!” Swindle looked up as a mech with red optics wearing a face mask with a sharp denta mouth painted on it came into view with a long stick-like weapon in his servos. “This one must have won a fortune!”

“He certainly has a lot.” Two more mechs appeared, grabbing Swindle’s winnings off the ground. Anger boiled inside the merchant as he say his prize money being collected in the servos of his attackers. If there was one thing Swindle hated more than anything, it was having something of his being taken from him.

Activating one of his shoulder guns, Swindle took aim at the closest thief but when he tried to fire, he was shocked to find that nothing came out. He looked at the gun in shock, wondering why it was malfunctioning at a time like this. The bot with the painted face grabbed his shoulder gun, pulling him up so they were optic to optic. Red glaring wickedly into scared violet.

“Say fellas! I think this one might have a few mods we can sell to the underground!” The mech leaned closer, his optics showing dark glee that sent warning alarms in Swindle’s helm. “And he ain’t bad looking too.”

Swindle tried to process his situation, trying to find an angle that would give him the mess of leverage and escape. But no matter how hard he tried, he always came back to the same realization as he stared in fear of the device getting closer to him.

He was caught. He was out numbered and out armed with no weapons online and no form of protection for him or his developing protoform. He was going to be ripped apart, sold as parts to the black market and it would be the end of him and his sparkling and his only regret was that he never got the chance to meet his kid. _I’m slaged. I’m slaged. I’m slaged I’m slaged I’m Slaged I’m Slaged I’M SLAGED I’M SLAGEDI’MSLAGEDI’M—_

“ ** _HEY!_** ” Helms shot up at the shout before the bot holding on Swindle’s shoulder cannon received a nasty punch across the face, letting go of the merchant. Swindle fell back, hitting the ground on his side.

Gazing up, Swindle was surprised to see the same mech from earlier standing in front of him glaring menacingly at the trio. The silver and blue bot wasn’t big, he was nearly Swindle’s size if not just a few inches shorter, but the air around him gave off the feeling of unease and danger that made him seem bigger than all of them together. Even if Swindle wasn’t the one on the receiving end of it like his attackers, he still felt it.

Two of the bots looked at each other, helping their fallen comrade up to his peds. Swindle was sure they would attack, seeing as they had the weapons for it, but the mech in front of him let out a low animalistic growl, flexing his servos in clear sight for everyone to see the long sharp talons on the ends of his thin digits. The trio took one more look at him, then quickly got to the peds and took off running.

“Yeah! You get on out of here! Get out! Go on, get!” The mech shouted at the retreating forms of Swindle’s attackers, shooting them a nasty glare and a finger jester that Swindle had seen a few times back on Earth. Once the bots were far out of sight, the mech turned to look at Swindle.

Both bots stared at one another for a long, agonizingly silent moment. Green on purple. Words bounced around in Swindle’s processor, ranging from ‘thank you’ to ‘you let them run off with my prize money’ that tried to make it to his intake but never made it past his shut lips. The mech moved his optics, glancing at Swindle’s leg.

The merchant knew it wasn’t bad. It was just dented at a slight odd angle. A few whacks of a hammer to it and Swindle was sure he’d be walking again. He glanced away from his leg to look at his chest, wondering if his sparkling had taken any damage. He hoped not.

“You should get that leg looked at.” A smooth soft voice cut through Swindle’s thoughts. “I’m no medic, but I’m pretty sure knees aren’t supposed to bend that angle.” Swindle blinked, looking up at the mech. The sliver and blue bot held out a servo towards him, offering a silent assistance.

Swindle looked at the servo, staring at it a moment before sighing and grabbing it, putting away his shoulder gun. The mech hoisted him up, helping him to his good stabilizer and slinging his arm over their shoulder. Once they were sure Swindle wouldn’t topple over, they began their slow walk/hobble for the nearest medical station.

Both mech’s fell into an uncomfortable silence, and for once Swindle was grateful for it. He tried not to focus too much on his lost goods, even though he was a bit sour about it, and did his best to stay calm as he walked with a noticeable limp in his slow steps. His free servo went towards his chest, pressing it against cracked the glass.

“… Luck.”

“Hm?” Swindle cast a quick glance at the mech helping him.

“My name.” The mech repeated. “You asked earlier what it was at the ring. It's Luck.” He side glanced at Swindle. “… and you were right. That fight _sucked._ ” Swindle eyed him a moment before sighing, keeping himself from leaning too much against mech as they walked.

“… Glad someone else though so too.”


	16. Steps (ShockBlurr)

“Are/you/sure?”

“Yes Blurr.”

“But/are/you/really/sure?”

“Yes Blurr.”

“Are/you/sure/you’re/sure?”

“ _Yes_ Blurr.”

“But/are/you/certainly/su—”

“ _Blurr_. I’m _sure._ ” Longarm frowned, placing his servo on Blurr’s shoulder. “Don’t you trust me?”

Blurr fidgeted. “…/I/trust/you/with/my/life./I/just/…/spending/a/few/megacycles/away/from/our/sparkling/is/not/something/I/want/to/be/doing/willingly./I/don’t/want/him/thinking/we/abandoned/him!”

Longarm smiled at him. “We’re only going to be gone for a megacycle at best. And as much as I want to bring Shockrr along, it wouldn’t be very appropriate at the meeting.”

“Are/you/sure?”

“ _Blurr._ ”

“I/know/I/know/I/know/I/know.” Blurr sighed, casting a quick glance at his sparkling.

Little Shockrr was already five and a half orbital cycles old, and already more of his features had started coming in as well as the beginnings of his armor coming in. It was clear Shockrr took more after him in shape, but some of Longarm could be seen as well. Shockrr’s stabilizers were beginning to show tank treads, as well as the upper half of his arms, just like Longarm’s. A little stub spike had started to come in on top his helm, no doubt now that it would soon become an antenna just like Blurr’s. So far, Shockrr showed no physical signs of Longarm’s true form, which was a big relief on his creators.

The little mechling was sitting on the floor playing with some of the toys SpeedStarr had left behind during her last visit, babbling in sparkling talk while stacking a cube on top another cube. Feeling optics on him, Shockrr turned his royal blue gaze on his creators. A happy smile crossed his faceplate, dropping the cube and crawled towards them with a happy beep.

Blurr lowered himself to his knees, holding his arms out towards his sparkling as Shockrr crawled towards him. The mechling happily beeped as he reached his carrier, being pulled into a warm hug. Blurr stood back up, rubbing his helm on top of Shockrr’s as he turned to Longarm.

“I/can/be/fine/with/it/if/it/was/you/watching/him./Or/Gran.” The disguised Decepticon frowned a bit. “But/are/you/really/sure/we/can/leave/for/such/a/long/time/and/for/him/to/be/okay/with/it?/Or/more/importantly/trust/this/bot/to/look/after/Shockrr?”

“He’s… dependable Blurr.” Longarm smiled softly. “I’ve known him since back at boot camp and he’s very trustworthy.”

“And/that’s/what’s/worrying/me.” Blurr adjusted his hold on Shockrr as the sparkling tried to climb on Blurr’s shoulder. “You’ve/told/me/the/bots/at/that/camp/couldn’t/be/suited/to/battle/a/Decepticon,/let/alone/watch/a/rock/without/losing/it/the/moment/they/blink.”

“Well they all were very untrained when I arrived.” Longarm rubbed his helm. “And I said they would lose the rock the moment the turned around.”

“A/very/ _large_ /rock.”

“Look, Blurr. You’ve meet him a few times.” Longarm grinned a bit as Shockrr tried to reach for Blurr’s antenna. “And you even said yourself how you enjoyed hanging out with him. He’s a good bot and I promise he can watch over Shockrr for us.”

Blurr frowned a bit, thinking it over as he carefully gave Shockrr over to his conjunx. “…/well/alright./But/I’m/holding/your/word/to/it!/If/Shockrr/so/much/let’s/out/a/whimper—”

“He’ll be fine Blurr.” Longarm shifted Shockrr in his hold, smiling at their sparkling. “I’m sure of it. He’s half of me after all.”

* * *

“So this is where you live. It’s a nice place.”

“Thank you Bumblebee.” Longarm smirked a little as the yellow minibot looked around the room with interest. “It’s not luxurious, but it’s home.”

“Better than living on a ship most nights.” Bumblebee hummed, turning to look at Longarm with a wide smile. “And congrats on having a sparkling! The news was crazy to hear over the comm, though Bulkhead was a bit bummed he couldn’t come see them.”

“Sorry that I hadn’t told you sooner. I had to be sure Blurr had recovered from his surgery before telling anyone else about the news.”

“Says/the/bot/who/shows/pictures/to/everyone/at/work.” Blurr huffed, though there was no hiding the smile on his face. “Everyone/got/to/see/what/Shockrr/look/like/before/actually/seeing/him.”

Longarm smiled as he pointed around the room. “Shockrr usually recharges at five o’clock. His recharging basket is in our room over there. He should sleep for most of the time we’re gone, but if he wakes up he’ll usually want something to eat first before playing with his toys.” He motioned to the refueling station and the corner Shockrr’s toys were placed. “He only needs to eat a half of energon cube.”

The yellow minibot looked at each area, nodding his helm with a smile. “Got it! Should be easy enough. So, how long are you guys going to be gone for?”

“A megacycle, or more depending how long this meeting should last.” Longarm noted how Blurr fidgeted, hugging their sparkling close to his chest. Shockrr however had his optics on Bumblebee the moment the bot stepped into the room, gazing intently at the yellow bot with his deep blue optics. The minibot smiled at the sparkling, waving a little.

“He sure is cute.”

“Thank you. He takes after Blurr.”

“Oh/hush.” Blurr stepped forward, gazing at Bee for a bit before slowly handing him Shockrr.

Bee carefully took the sparkling in his arms, shifting them till he was sure the small mechling was secure in his hold and shot a smile at both creators.

“Now/be/sure/he/gets/his/five/o’clock/recharge/and/it/has/to/be/on/ _five_ /o’clock/ _on_ / _the_ / _dot_ /not/five/o/one/or/four/fifty/nine/ _five_ /o’clock/got/five/just/five/and/be/sure/he/gets/the/proper/amount/of/energon/because/he’s/still/a/growing/sparkling/and/he/needs/a/proper/balance/of/food/and/be/careful/he/tends/to/get/a/bit/fussy/when/he’s/eating/and/start/throwing/his/food/so/there/might/be/a/mess/you/have/to/clean/up/oh/and/speaking/of/messes/he/likes/to/throw/his/toys/around/so/you/might/want/to/watch/out/and/if/there’s/trouble/which/I/hope/won’t/be/any/trouble/you/can/comm/Longarm/or/me/but/mostly/me/because/if/there’s/trouble/I/can/be/here/in/less/than/a/few/cycles/but/I/know/there/won’t/be/any/trouble/because/Longarm/says/you’re/dependable/right/right/you/right/aren’t/you/you’re/dependable/oh/my/Primus/you’re/not/dependable/are/you/I/knew/this/was/a/bad/idea/that’s/it/I’m/staying/home/with/my—”

“There’s a helpful list on the counter if you need anything. Comm us if there’s serious trouble.” Longarm waved goodbye as he pulled his conjunx to the door while Blurr was increasing his hysteria. “ _Blurr we’re going to be late, come on_.” With a final tug, both mechs were out the door, leaving a confused minibot in the middle of the room with a sparkling.

Bee stood there for a moment blinking. “… huh. And Ratchet says I talk too much.”

“Beep.”

* * *

The meeting had been standard in Longarm’s optics, though more than once he had to discreetly hold Blurr in his seat next to him, keeping him focused on the Magnus’s words as he spoke while noting of anything important he could secretly report to Lord Megatron later. 

By the time the meet had official closed, Blurr had taken off. He didn’t bother to stop his conjunx and just calmly left the meeting room. Blurr was fast, faster than anyone he ever knew. If anything, Blurr would no doubt already be at their home long before he was even halfway there. If there was trouble, Blurr could probably handle it. He was an Elite Agent after all.

A cute, beautiful, fast, wonderful agent.

Longarm shook his helm, transforming into his ALT mode and slowly headed for home. Under normal circumstances, he would gladly be driving home as quickly as he could just to see his family, but right now, he wanted to delay the inevitable.

He wanted to enjoy his last moments of calm and quiet before he had to face the horrible wrath he could never stand up to. The one thing he always wanted to avoid and never anger. The very being the scared him more than SpeedStarr herself.

A very, very, **_very_** angry conjunx.

Longarm shuddered so hard his whole body shook.

He may have kept a few details out when he tried to reassure Blurr about Bumblebee’s capabilities. While the bot _was_ dependable, he was also rather clumsy, reckless, loud, immature, and too nosey on personal matters. He was, by far, one of the worst bots he could rely on to watch his young spark while he and Blurr were away.

But he was the _only_ bot he could rely on on such short notice. SpeedStarr wasn’t available, he didn’t trust any of his lesser co-workers or any available Elite Guards around his sparkling. And there weren’t many bots he knew that he could trust or get rid of later to watch Shockrr.

Until he remembered a certain loudmouth yellow minibot.

It was a risk. A huge risk. He knew Bumblebee back at boot camp, and mostly just avoided the bot at first.

_Until he found out about his relationship with Blitzwing._

It was something he had stumbled upon at night, overhearing the minibot talking to someone in hush whispers on a communicator. He didn’t think to eavesdrop on the conversation, but then Bumblebee had mentioned the words ‘You big old Decepticon’ which had quickly caught his attention. At first he was going to just dismiss it as a joke, but then he overheard the Con’s voice on the device and immediately recognized it as Blitzwing.

Anger was all he could feel that morning towards the minibot and at Blitzwing.

How dare a loyal follower of Megatron be friends with an Autobot! It was a disgrace! An act of treason! Megatron should hear of this disloyalty and have Blitzwing’s helm on a pike!

He had almost done so too, but sadly he had bumped into that little yellow annoying bot on his way to report this. He had bluntly told Bumblebee about finding out about his relationship, and took in some glee from the fear on his faceplate. He made to go report this finding to their instructor, though in truth he was going to report to Megatron…

… until the minibot flipped him over on his back, pinning him down with one ped on his chest with his stinger pointing right at his faceplate.

He was surprised, if not a little impressed. The small mech had managed to flip him, pin him, and hold him in firing range faster than he could blink an optic.

It had been impressive feet, one that clearly caught his attention. Before, had only thought the minibot was a complete bumbler, but at that moment, the bot had shown sharp skill and precise movement. And the look in his optics.

Cold. Empty. Sharp. _Angry_.

Certainly nothing like the happy go bot he had seen cycles ago. He had a look that showed he was willing to kill and wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest. He had to be very careful with his words at that moment and luckily managed to calm the bot down enough so they could talk properly.

He found out more of his and Blitzwing’s relationship, and while he didn’t approve of it, it did give him an idea.

Bumblebee was obviously loyal to Blitzwing, so loyal he was willing to keep that secret safe, even if it meant to offline someone. This meant that he was willing to tell Blitzwing everything he knew, and become a spy inside enemy lines. A spy that was already an Autobot, who blended in easily with no way for other’s to know about his deceit. Not even the bot himself.

A plan was formulating in his helm, a prefect plan to get Bumblebee into the high ranks and have a perfect spy hidden among the Autobot fools that could leak important information to his great Lord Megatron.

And it almost work.

Had it not been for the sudden surprise visit from Blitzwing himself the very next night.

The Con had taken him by surprise in the middle of the night, dragging him far away so no one could hear them or have any viewing optics spot them, slamming him into a thick wall, pinning him by his neck cables in a tight grip his vocalizer sputtered a few times under the pressure. Seekers weren’t stronger fighters, but Blitzwing was an exception.

The Con was bigger and more powerful than a common seeker, and had lived through the war being one of the most brutal Decepticon seekers ever to live. Many Autobots had been offlined by his servos, being the last thing they ever saw was his blue unhinged grinning faceplate and red visor before he brutally murdered them, and the look he had given Longarm through his visor told him of a promising slow painful death.

One that Blitzwing had vowed to do through his gritting dentae if Longarm so much looked at the minibot the wrong way or put a scratch on his frame. Blitzwing had made sure he understood his threat loud and clear that the minibot was not to be under any form of danger, from Decepticon or anything else, or else the disguised spy would feel the cold grip of death from Blitzwing’s own servos.

The threat had been loud and clear enough for Longarm and the next morning the Guard took an innocent storage bot to the stockades and Longarm was on his way to greatness.

It was a pity that he could not get Bumblebee into an important position and have a prefect spy in the ranks, but Blitzwing was very obviously attached to the minibot and he was more of a threat to Longarm than the yellow bot.

But that didn’t mean he held one over Blitzwing. Bumblebee had no idea that ‘Longarm’ was actually Shockwave, and the bot kept in contact with him. He held Bee in his power and with a single word to their Lord, he could have both Blitzwing and his little annoying lover dead in nanoklicks. He made sure this threat was clear for Blitzwing if he ever stepped out of line. For there was no greater dishonor to the Decepticon cause than to be in love with an enemy.

_Oh the complete irony now for him._

In sense, he now understood the Decepticon’s desire to keep his mechfriend save, though he only took it further and bonded with Blurr and even further by having a sparkling with him.

No doubt Blitzwing could rat on him for this betrayal if he ever ratted him out on his relationship with Bumblebee. But at the moment, they were in a stalemate, holding power over each other that would no doubt lead to both of their demise. And nethier of them wanted to risk getting the bot’s they loved in any danger.

Longarm sighed as he stood in front of the door. He just needed to play his part right, and in the end everything would be worth it. For now though, he just needed to be a loyal conjunx and a loving sire.

“I’m ho—”

“ _Longarm/Look!_ ”

Longarm paused at the doorway at Blurr’s shrill cry. Though it wasn’t a shrill scream of anger.

It was a cry of delight joy.

Blurr was kneeling on the floor, holding his arms out as Shockrr, sweet little tiny Shockrr, was slowly and clumsily walk towards Blurr. Longarm stared in shock as the young mechling toddled towards Blurr, making happy beeps while making grabbing motions with his tiny servos. The sparkling made it just to Blurr’s arms before his stabilizers gave out, toppling into Blurr’s hold.

Blurr brought his sparkling up to his face, pressing kisses everywhere on Shockrr’s face as the sparkling squealed with delight from the attention. Turning his helm, Blurr smiled at the flabbergasted Longarm, hugging their sparkling to his chest. “He/walked!/Clumsy/and/still/not/ready/to/get/out/of/the/crawling/stage/yet/but/he/walked!/All/on/his/own!”

Longarm snapped out of his shock, smiling widely. His sparkling had taken his first steps! Crossing the room quickly, he enveloped his family in a tight hug, giving Blurr a kiss on the cheek. “That’s great! I can’t believe it! He’s not even seven orbital cycles old yet!”

“I/know!” Blurr let out a laugh, nuzzling into Longarm’s hold. “Oh/I’m/so/happy!”

Longarm smiled, hugging his family closer to him. “Bumblebee did you see that? Shockrr—” The disguised Decepticon looked up, only to find it was just Blurr, him, and their sparkling in the room.

“Oh/right./Bumblebee/left/a/few/cycles/after/I/got/home.” Blurr explained. “He/said/that/nothing/went/wrong/while/watching/Shockrr/and/that/he/can/always/watch/him/again/if/we/ever/needed/him/to.” Blurr shifted Shockrr in his hold, setting him down on the floor. The mechling babbled as he crawled towards his toys that were laid out on the floor. “Everything/seemed/to/be/okay/when/I/came/in./And/Shockrr/seemed/to/like/Bee.”

“… Really? That’s good.” Longarm watched as Shockrr grabbed a cube and proceeded to bite down on it. Looking around, he could spot nothing out of place or anything on fire, which was surprising. Had Bumblebee been that good watching Shockrr? Or had it been some other mech that looked like Bumblebee?

… Well, if he had watched over his offspring and did a decent job of it, he _might_ consider asking for the bot’s help again. _Might._


	17. Checkup (BlitzBee)

“ _Get Back Here!_ ”

Optimus looked up from his datapad as a yellow blur ran past him with an angry Ratchet chasing after it. He watched as Ratchet chased after Bumblebee around the living room, the little Autobot keeping himself out of the old medic’s grip.

“Get Back Here!”

“In Your Dreams!” Bumblebee screamed, jumping over the couch and various objects to stay away from Ratchet.

If Optimus didn’t know better, this would probably be normal behavior from Bumblebee. The young scout hated medical checkups, and always tried to avoid them as best he could. But unfortunately, he did know better, and he was a little surprised that Bee was running around despite his current condition.

Bee jumped over a cluster of Bulkhead’s paint cans, making a mad dash towards Optimus and diving behind the leader. Optimus glanced at Bee before looking up at a fuming Ratchet stomping towards them. He shifted so that Bee was mostly behind him. As much as he was disappointed with the young bot, he could tell that he was still very scared of Ratchet.

Ratchet gave Optimus a glare, clear irritation on his faceplate, but made no move to get closer.

“Is there a problem here?” Optimus kept his voice leveled, trying to keep things from escalating.

“He tried to get the jump on me!” Bumblebee pointed a digit at Ratchet, ducking behind Optimus when Ratchet shot him a nasty glare.

“ _I was not._ ” Ratchet huffed. “It’s been four solar cycles since your last checkup n’ you’ve been avoidin’ the medbay.”

Optimus glanced over his shoulder. “Is this true Bee?”

Bumblebee cast his gaze on the floor, huffing a little.

The Prime frowned a bit. “Bumblebee you know Ratchet’s only trying to help you. You can’t skip out on this.”

“I’ll say.” Ratchet grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Your health really isn’t ideal as of right now kid, especially with yer nanites.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my nanites.” Bumblebee huffed, though he pressed closer to Optimus, hugging his chest tightly.

“Kid, ya have the _poorest_ nanites I’ve ever seen!” Ratchet held up a servo, lifting a digit as he began to list off the flaws. “Faulty self-repair, low energy, bad damage reception, _heck_ , ya don’t even have the standard amount of nanites a bot your age should have! Were ya made in a faulty factory or somethin’?”

“I was spark made.” Bumblebee mumbled.

Ratchet sighed, rubbing his faceplate. “Ya should have told me ‘bout yer nanites sooner. With those bad nanites ya have, it’s a miracle you’re even _livin’_ right now kid.”

Optimus placed a gentle servo on Bee’s shoulder, smiling gently at him. “Come on Bee. Let’s get you to the medbay.”

“I don’t need too.” Bee muttered, but he didn’t protest as Optimus gently guided him towards the medbay with Ratchet following behind them.

* * *

“I don’t like this.”

Optimus stayed silent as he and Ratchet left the medbay. Bumblebee was in recharge in the Prime’s arms, tired out from the checkup.

“The more I look at it, the more it boggles my mind that someone could have such bad nanits n’ act all fine ‘bout it.”

Optimus frowned down at Bumblebee. For someone so spunky and full of energy, he never once could have guessed that Bee had a medical condition. “It is treatable… isn’t it?”

“Oh sure.” Ratchet sighed, crossing his arms. “It’s treatable if someone noticed the poor nanites while the kid was a sparklin’. Nanites are a fickle thin’ Prime. Ya can’t jus’ introduce one bots nanites with ‘nother n’ expect everythin’ to go alright. It needs to be taken slowly, monitored for anythin’ that could mess with the bot’s inner workin’s.”

The pair made it to Bee’s room, with Ratchet staying outside as Optimus went in and set Bee down on the berth. Once he was sure Bumblebee was comfortable, he quietly left.

“Why did he never tell us about this?” The Prime sighed as they walked towards the main room. “Over a thousand stellar cycles we’ve known him, and never once did he ever tell us about his nanites!”

“Well, to be fair, it’s not somethin’ ya can jus’ brin’ up in a conversation. That, or the kid didn’t know himself.” The medic scratched his chin. “He acted fine n’ all. No signs of anythin’ wrong with him that anyone could have spotted right away. Basically was a normal bot as far as I could tell n’ would have probably never known.” Ratchet frowned deeply as his optics narrowed. “Until that thin’ happened.”

Optimus sighed, feeling drained already. “Ratchet. Please. Don’t. We already talked about this.”

“N’ I’m still goin’ to say it. Ya should have let me remove it.”

“And I still stand by that it’s still a life. A young new spark life.” Optimus turned his helm, looking Ratchet right in the optics. “As much as I am hurt that Bumblebee is carrying a Decepticon sparkling, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an innocent living being. We can’t just get rid of it just because it’s part Decepticon.”

“But it could still _kill_ him.” Ratchet growled. “Mostly all of his healthy nanites are focused on the protoform than his body, which almost ended up killin’ him when his body couldn’t keep up with breakin’ down the metals he was consumin’! If you n’ Prowl hadn’t found him in time, his body would have overworked itself tryin’ to get rid of the excess metals!”

“N’ what’s more.” Ratchet continued. “The nanites buildin’ the protoform are somethin’ I ain’t never seen before. I’m not sure what a Decepticon’s nanites are supposed to look like, but I’m sure there not supposed to look like that. The weird n’ distorted.” His optics narrowed. “I can only have one guess who could have nanites like that.”

Optimus frowned a bit. “But… the protoform’s fine… right?”

Ratchet snorted. “Fine as it could be. Still in the early stages, but everythin’ seemed to be goin’ fine now. The nanites ya donated to Bee have been helpin’ him a lot. Still—”

“No.”

Ratchet glared at him a bit but sighed. “ _Fine._ I still don’t like it, but Bee can keep her. Kid’s really stubborn to keep that sparklin’ anyway.” He headed for the medbay, muttering under his voice. “ _Disappeared for_ _two fragin’ orbital cycles n’ almost wound up dead._ ”

“At least he’s willing to raise it. He—” Optimus blinked. “… her?”

The old medic stopped, looking over his shoulder. “It’s a femm.” Ratchet shrugged. “The protoform is still in early development, but far ‘nough developed to decide what to be.”

Optimus blinked again before smiling. “Well, that’ll news to tell Bumblebee.”

* * *

“And jou’re zure he’s fine?”

Prowl kept himself from sighing. “Yes. He’s fine.”

“And zee zparkling?”

“They’re fine too.”

Blitzwing sighed, leaning back against the tree he was sitting against. “Zat’s a relief.”

“You’ve known they’ve been fine since Bee returned.” Prowl stated, eyeing the Decepticon carefully.

“I just vant to make zure zey are still okay and zat nothing has happened to zem.” Blitzwing crossed his arms, huffing. “It’s hard for me not being zere for him or unser Kleiner.”

“Unser… kleiner?”

“It means our little one.”

“Ah.” Prowl nodded his helm. “I see.” He was silent for a moment before his optics widened slightly. “It was you.”

“Hmm?”

“You were the one who taught Bumblebee that language.” Prowl clarified.

“Oh, zat.” Blitzwing shrugged. “It’s just zomething he asked me to teach. Nothing zpecial really.”

“He would talk in that language sometimes.” Prowl stated, noting how Blitzwing seemed to react when he spoke about Bee using their language. “Just small words or a few sentences.”

“… like vat?”

“Like…” Prowl thought a moment, remembering the small words Bee would use sometimes. “He sometimes calls Optimus Führer. Do you know what that means?”

Blitzwing hummed. “Course I do. I taught him zat word. It literally means leader. It’s a very fitting thing to call your Prime by that.”

“What about starker treuer Freund? Or stille naturliebender Ninja?

“Ztrong loyal friend. And silent nature loving ninja.” Blitzwing smirked slightly. “He used to call jou verrückter Einzelgänger Ninja.”

Prowl frowned, remembering being called that but never understanding what it meant. “And that means?”

Blitzwing’s face spun to Random, who giggled with a wide smile. “It literally means crazy loner ninja! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Of course.” Prowl sighed, shaking his helm. He just _knew_ it was an insult somehow whenever Bee used those words on him. He just didn’t know what they meant till now.

Blitzwing cackled for a cycle before his face spun back to Icy, clearing his intake before standing up. “Zank jou for telling me about Hummel. It’s nice to know zat he and zee zparkling are doing vell.”

Prowl gazed at Blitzwing as the Con turned to leave. “Why.”

The bigger bot paused, looking over his shoulder. “Vhy?”

“Why do you insist on staying a Decepticon? Why not switch sides and join us? That way you can be with Bumblebee and not have to worry about him.”

Blitzwing was silent, staring at Prowl for a long while. His face was neutral, completely void of any thoughts in his helm. “… I can’t.” He looked away. “It’s… a nice zought… but I can’t.”

Prowl tilted his helm. “If it’s about the team I can try to—”

“ _It’s Not Zat!_ ” Blitzwing turned around, bearing his dentae with a scowl on his red face. “I Don’t Care Vat Jou’re Puny Team Zinks Of Me! It Vouldn’t Matter Because It’s Not Zee Real Reason!”

Prowl flinched, trying to stay calm. “Then what is?”

“… Megatron.” Blitzwing hissed, his face spinning back to Icy. “Megatron is zee reason. I can’t just leave and except him not to vant revenge for zuch disloyalty. It’s bad enough zat I love an Autobot, vhich I don’t ever regret. But if he finds out about him? And about zee zparkling?” A visible shudder went through his frame. “ _I vould rather die zan let zat happen to my Familie._ ”

Prowl’s optics widened. He hadn’t thought of the consequences if Blitzwing truly did leave the Decepticons.

“… I hate zat I am Con rather zan an Autobot. And zuch factions of var is keeping me apart from my liebe… but if it means keeping him and our zparkling zafe from Megatron, zen it’s zomething I must keep being for zere zake.”

“And if there was another way?”

Blitzwing shook his helm, turning away from the ninja. “If zere’s vas, I vould have taken it a long time ago.” Blitzwing transformed and flew off, leaving behind Prowl to brew in his thoughts over Blitzwing’s words with his helm bowed to the ground.

If had looked up though, he could have caught a glimpse of crimson glare between the trees before vanishing.


	18. Longing (SwinLock)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hints of interfacing

“ _Ugh._ Damn it.” Swindle groaned, curled up in a ball on his plush couch as his tank twisted. He _knew_ he shouldn’t have eaten that rusty metal. It was gross, crusty, and worst of all was the horrible aftertaste it had. But his cravings wouldn’t be satisfied with any of the other metals he tried eating, and it only got stronger the more he tried to ignore it till he finally gave in. _And it was **so** not worth it._

“ _Nnh._ ” Swindle clutched his middle, wishing the pain to be over with already. “ _Stupid metal cravings._ ” The merchant loathed one thing since the whole carrying thing happen, and that was craving certain metals.

One moment the kid wanted Tin, the next moment they wanted Tungsten carbide. Not once had his cravings ever been on the same metal type, and that usually ended badly for Swindle’s tank. It was almost like him in a way.

“Couldn’t you just crave for more energon kid?” Swindle moaned into a pillow. “At least that’s easier on the tank.” Rubbing his digits over his middle, Swindle wondered if he had to suffer through this for the rest of the carrying process. If he did, he was going to dread this the whole time till the kid finally emerged.

“What’s the matter with you?”

Swindle jumped, looking up to see green optics looking down at him. “… it’s nothing Luck.” Swindle huffed softly, easing more into the couch, wishing his tank would just calm down already. “Just something I ate a while ago disagreeing with me.”

“… you should watch what you eat.”

“ _Gee_ , you don’t say?” Swindle glared up at the bot.

Luck was an odd bot.

Swindle wasn’t sure why or how, but the mech somehow ended up being his hired bodyguard. And while his past experiences with bodyguards didn’t turn out so well, with the knowledge to never again clone a bot with Starscream CNA ever again, he did actually enjoy Luck’s company.

Sure the bot was quiet and always had that neutral look on his face, but he was surprisingly good company to have and a decently great bodyguard too. Swindle was still an arm’s dealer, so business had to pick up again once his orbital cycle of relaxing was done. He wasn’t sure at first if Luck was up to the task, but the bot managed to surprise him by keeping him out of danger.

Luck wasn’t a bot who talked much, but of the few things he did say and do, Swindle could paint a vague picture of this bot. At best, Luck was a loner bot. He wasn’t one to hang with the crowd and didn’t seem to enjoy company of other bots for long. Swindle often found the bot disappearing on him at times, but always managing to pop back when he needed that bot for something.

He wasn’t much of a talker either. Silence was his best strength, along with his stone cold stoic face. It was alright though. Swindle did most of the talking anyway, and he could gladly talk for megacycles if he felt like it.

Still, there was something about the bot that Swindle couldn’t put his digit on.

Something… familiar.

Swindle shook it off. Even if there was something about Luck that felt familiar, he still didn’t put his trust in the bot 100%. He was still just a bot-for-hire and not someone he should get attached to.

_That’s what he first thought when he and his mutual friend started doing regular business together. Stellar cycles to trading and buying from each other built a ground layer of trust for them that he hardly ever feared the mech when he boarded his ship to business with him. Sometimes he brought along some high grade when he felt like letting loose and his friend wasn’t one to dismiss a rare free drink of high grade, even if it always ended with them getting too overcharged and ending up in a berth together._

Swindle groaned, curling in on himself. “Ah, slag… please tell me we’ve almost to our destination.”

“Just a few cycles away.”

 _Well at least something is going right at least_. Swindle thought, sitting up on the couch. “Alright. Alright. Thanks for telling me.” Luck shrugged, leaving Swindle to himself. As much as he was a good bodyguard, he had terrible manners sometimes. Even Lockdown had better manners than him sometimes.

The thought of Lockdown dampened Swindle’s mood. He hadn’t seen the mech since they last saw each other, which was good since their last meeting hadn’t been too… ‘friendly’ per say. He had heard of his killing spree though. The reports hadn’t been able to identify the bot responsible for all the deaths, but Swindle knew mercenary’s handiwork anywhere.

The images he saw just proved to Swindle that the bounty hunter still hadn’t been too happy about the news. Though, the more he saw those images, the more he noticed that not one single bot that Lockdown had killed had their mods taken. Ripped from the body and found nowhere near them yes, but the authorities always managed to find the missing mods in the end. Broken and damaged beyond repair. And some of those mods were one of a kind!

It wasn’t like Lockdown to not take anyone’s mods! For Primus sake he had a whole ship filled with stolen mods! Something was defiantly wrong with the mercenary if he was ignoring the mods of his victims, and Swindle wanted to know what.

But at the same time. He knew he couldn’t. Lockdown had made very clear of his threat if they ever were to see each other again, and Swindle didn’t want to risk it.

It didn’t stop him from wonder what was going through Lockdown’s helm right now…

* * *

_Warm._

_Warmth was traveling up and down his frame as he traced his servo over the curves of the smaller bot bellow him. His digits brushed over the areas he knew that made merchant moan and crave for more. Their fans were on high, trying to cool their heated frames._

_Swindle’s venting hitched as his thumb traced circles in his hip to the corner of his guard plate before moving it back, teasing the bot for what was to come soon. He moved his digits slowly, dragging them over to Swindle’s middle, pausing briefly at his stomach grill. Warmth was bleeding in hot air that emanated within Swindle, and it was intoxicatingly good._

_Not as good as his optics though._

_They were like an ocean of energon with their unique color. A vibrant violet, rare and beautiful with an even unique cat-like look. It was enticing, if not one of a kind. He had seen other bots with different colored optics before. Orange, green, yellow. But purple optics were really rare._

_So rare, it was hard to find somebot with that color with a sane mind. He wasn’t stupid, he knew how Swindle could have gotten that color, the bot had even told him how. But if he was honest, he really liked the color on Swindle. It made him more handsome, if not a little more attractive. Especially when the screaming frag me while they were interfacing._

_Those optics were wide, large, expressive, beautiful and—_

Lockdown snorted, jumping as his optics onlined quickly. It took him a moment to realize he was laying on top of his work table with a half-finished mod in front of him. Resting his optics a few times, Lockdown groaned as he sat up, stretching his neck of any cricks and stiffness.

 _Primus_. That was the fifth time this deca-cycle he was dreaming about _Swindle._

Casting a glance at the mod, Lockdown huffed, shoving it away. He didn’t feel like finishing it…

Just like how he hadn’t felt like taking the mods of the bots he had been hired to kill recently these past few orbital cycles. It was… **infuriating**. Why were mods no longer appealing to him? **_Why?!_** He had always enjoy the thrill of the hunt, getting trophies and mods as a reward for his dark efforts.

Yet over the last three orbital cycles, mods longer gave him that joy he had for so long. So why?!

 _You know why idiot._ His mind thought as he stood and headed for the front of the ship. _Think back carefully. What happened three orbital cycles ago? What happened that you saw, what you reacted to, and what you promised to do if you ever saw him again._

Lockdown invented harshly. _Swindle_. Swindle was the reason why. But not in the way he originally thought.

No. It took three orbital cycles for him to think it over and… _slightly_ admit that he had overreacted just a little.

_You still have nightmares about the last look he gave you. The wide optics filled with fear and sadness. He probably wanted to tell you something important before you flew into a rage seeing that spark inside him._

It hadn’t been _his_ fault seeing the spark. Swindle had his chest wide open when he saw it! He had only walked out a moment and came back to seeing the bot staring at his spark when he spotted that… that… **that…**

_And that’s the reason why Swindle looked at you with such fear. You let your emotions get the better of you and things quickly got out of hand fast. If you had been calm about it, he could have told you what happened. Maybe then you could have had something to go by to find out about the sire._

Well, it certainly wasn’t _him_ that’s for sure. He was sterile. They had interfaced many times before and Swindle never got sparked up by him.

_But that begged the question of who was the sire now doesn’t it? Who could have put that sparkling in him?_

Couldn’t have been a femm. Swindle was certainly not into femms. Couldn’t have been an Autobot. He didn’t do deals with them and the spark was _red_.

So it had to be a mech, and had to be a Decepticon. Those were the only two leads he had. And they were the _only_ leads he had to go on. Sighing heavily as he sat down in his captain seat, he stared out into space.

It wasn’t much to go by, and even though he was a great tracker, he wasn’t _that_ great of a tracker when he didn’t have enough leads to go with. Finding this sire was harder than he thought.

 _And_ why _are you trying to find this sire exactly? You cut your ties with Swindle and you even said that you never wanted to see him again._

Lockdown closed his optics, silent for a moment before opening them.

He may no longer have ties to Swindle… but that didn’t mean he wanted him out of his life. Swindle was one of the few mechs he actually enjoyed spending time with, if not a little possessive of the merchant. Sure he _may_ have not taken the news too well, but after he had time to cool off and think back to it, he no longer had the spark in him to want to keep that threatening promise he made to Swindle.

Not when he remembered the look he gave him.

Shaking his helm, Lockdown tried to focus on his new hunt, and tried not to think about wide purple optics and a deep longing in his chest.


	19. Exploring (ShockBlurr)

“Carrier.”

“Beep.”

“Carrier.”

“Beep!”

“Car./Ri./Er.”

“Beep, beep, beep!”

“ _Carrier._ ”

“ _Beep!_ ”

Blurr sighed, slapping a servo over his face. “I/can’t/believe/this/it/shouldn’t/be/too/hard/for/him/to/say/carrier/he’s/already/over/nine/orbital/cycles/old/he/should/be/able/to/say/something/at/this/point/but/he’s/just/beeping/and/that’s/fine/and/all/but/he/really/should/be/saying/his/first/word/by/now!” He turned his helm to look at Shockwave. “Do/you/think/there’s/something/wrong/with/him?”

“I doubt that Blurr.” The Con cooed as the little bitlet tried grabbing his claws dangling above the little mechling’s helm. “It takes a while for sparklings to develop a strong vox to speak with. Mine took about eleven orbital cycles before I spoke my first word.” He lowered his servo just enough for Shockrr to grab. “He’s still a little young yet Blurr. Give him some time.”

Blurr frowned. “But/he/was/barely/seven/orbital/cycles/old/when/he/started/walking/and/that’s/way/earlier/than/normal/sparklings/to/be/even/standing!” The Autobot glanced at Shockrr, who was happily beeping while he dangled from his sire’s digits he was holding on to with a tight grip. “And/mind/you/this/just/me/thinking/but/if/he’s/already/walking/when/he/should/be/learning/to/stand/then/shouldn’t/he/be/talking/right/about/now?”

Shockwave gave him a gentle look as he grabbed Shockrr with his free servo. “Maybe he’s just special. There should be nothing to worry about Blurr.”

“Yes/but—!”

“Shh.” Shockwave leaned his helm against Blurr’s, nuzzling against it gently. “Every sparkling is different my dearest. Don’t worry about every detail or every little thing that happens. I’m quite sure that he’s fine.” Shifting his servos to Blurr, he placed their sparkling in his conjunx’s arms. “Just look how happy he is.”

Blurr glanced at Shockrr, finding him happily smiling, kicking his stabilizers out with a happy little beep. Blurr stared at his child a moment before smiling and hugging them close. “…/maybe/you’re/right.” Blurr smiled at Shockwave. “I’ll/always/be/a/little/worried/about/him./But/I’m/sure/you’re/right.” He held out the small sparkling. “Just/as/long/as/there’s/no/surprises/in/store/everything/should/be/fine!”

* * *

“ _EVERYTHING/IS/NOT/FINE!_ ” Blurr screamed as he ran past confused Autobots.

Far ahead of him, a small giggling orange blur was darting between bots. Many Autobots who noticed stopped in the tracks or fell over in shock. Blurr paid them little attention and only focused on chasing after his runaway sparkling.

“Shockrr!/Shockrr/get/back/here!”

The little sparkling didn’t paid his carrier any mind. He was too busy enjoying running around with his newly discovered speed. Dashing down the street, looping around other bots, and hopping over items, the little mech was having the time of his life.

Blurr however was having the worst day ever. Not only had the discovery of his little Shockrr’s speed set off his anxiety, but the young bitlet had managed to escape the moment the door was left open. If his fears weren’t soaring, they were certainly sky rocketing right now!

The little mech ran past confused bots, running under a table, running up a wall then down it to run up a different wall, jumping on top of bot in vehicle mode, and dashed down the street.

For Blurr however. The larger bot tried to avoid running into other bots, but he was so focused on his young son, he accidentally knocked them over. “Sorry!” He yelled over his shoulder before colliding with the table Shockrr had ran under, sending him and the items on top falling to the ground.

From helm to ped the blur racer was covered in paint, which covered his vision. Sitting up, he did his best to clear in his sight, spotting his sparkling running up a wall. Letting out a scream, Blurr quickly ran after Shockrr, running up the wall at top speed. He only managed to brush his digits against his sparkling when Shockrr took a sharp turn and ran down the wall. The sudden shift caught Blurr off guard, making him slip and fall to the ground, which he quickly shook off and looked around to find any sign of his son.

When he couldn’t see a orange blur anywhere in sight, Blurr let out a cry of anguish.

Shockrr however let out a squeal of delight as he ran. This place was so big! He had only ever been in his home, so the outside world was very exciting for the young spark. Everywhere he looked he saw different bots, different things, different buildings, his sire, new things, different—

The little bot skidded to a stop. Snapping his helm around, his deep blue optics spotted his sire standing a couple of feet away from him, looking at the ground confused. Letting out a loud happy beep that caught his sire’s attention, Shockrr dashed right towards him.

“Shock-OMF!” Longarm had no time to prepare for his son barreling into him, sending him crashing to the ground. Dazed, the secret agent looked up to see Shockrr nuzzling his middle, letting out happy beeps. “Wha-what are you doing out here?”

Hocking his thumbs under Shockrr’s arms, he carefully lifted the sparkling up as he slowly stood up. “Hmm. Seems you really did inherit Blurr’s speed then. That’s going to be a bit of trouble when you get older.” Longarm couldn’t help but smile, bouncing his child a bit, causing them to happily let out giggling beeps. “Though, where’s your carrier? Blurr was watching you when I left so where—” Looking up, Longarm spotted a bright blue blur rushing past him, He blinked once before Blurr suddenly appeared in front of him covered in scrapes in wet paint.

“Longarm!/Oh/thank/goodness/I/found/you/it’s/terrible/just/terrible/Shockrr/got/out/of/the/apartment/and/what’s/worse/is/that/he’s/running/around/with/MY/speed!/We/have/quickly/find/him/before/he/gets/hurt/or/lost/or/stolen/or/abducted/by/aliens/or—”

Longarm carefully lifted Shockrr up to Blurr’s helm, showing the worried carrier their missing child chewing on his servo. “…/wow/you/work/fast.”

* * *

“Annnd done.” Longarm stood back to admire his work. A set of braces were on each of Shockrr’s stabilizers, special made to stop speedy little sparklings from running around at high speeds. Another little gift left behind from SpeedStarr’s last visit. “Alright, these should keep him from speeding off suddenly.”

“Thank/goodness.” Blurr sighed with great relief as his conjunx sat next to him on the couch. “Now/I/know/why/Gran/left/them/for/us./Chasing/a/sparkling/with/super/speed/is/hard/work!”

“It couldn’t have been that ba—” Blurr shot him a glare, which shut the Decepticon right up.

“Anyway.” Blurr turned his focus on Shockrr, lifting the bitlet up so they were optic to optic. “You/little/mister/are/lucky/you’re/so/cute/right/now/or/otherwise/you’d/be/in/big/trouble/for/running/off/like/that/but/at/the/same/time/I’m/so/proud/of/you/you/have/my/speed/oh/imagine/the/races/we’ll/have/together/when/you’re/older/you’ll/be/like/a/blur/against/the—”

“Blur!”

Both bots froze. Slowly, their optics turned to the small bitlet in Blurr’s servos. Shockrr, oblivious to his creators shocked stunned faces, was happily smiling at them. Raising his arms up, his intake opened and shouted. “Blur! Blur!”

Longarm and Blurr stared in shock as their sparkling happily kept shouting Blur over and over in his carrier’s servos. Eventually, Longarm managed to snap out of his stupor, grinning audible to audible. “He spoke! Blurr he spoke!” The disguised Con took Shockrr from Blurr’s grasp, placing a small kiss on the bitlet’s helm. “This great! A little disappointing his first word wasn’t sire but… Blurr?”

Fat coolant tears were rolling down Blurr’s faceplate, his body shaking as his servos gripping each other tightly.

“Blurr? Blurr love, what’s—”

“My name.” Blurr sniffled, shocking his conjunx at the slow speed of his words. “He… h-he said m-my name.” A wobbly smile broke out across his face.

Shockrr looked at his carrier in confusion, reaching out to him. “Blur?”

Blurr tried to keep the tears back as Longarm handed him their sparkling, hugging Shockrr close as the bitlet was confused with his carriers odd show of affection.


	20. Nightmare (BlitzBee)

> **_ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ. ᴏᴜʀ ꜰᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴜꜱ ᴀᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴀɴᴅ—_ **

“No.”

> **_ɪ ᴍɪꜱꜱ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ᴅᴀʏ. ʙᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀꜱᴛᴀɴᴅ ɪᴛ'ꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴇ—_ **

“Ugh! Nein, NEIN!”

> **_ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢꜱ ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴇxᴘʟᴀɪɴ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴜᴛ ɪᴛ'ꜱ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴇ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ꜱᴇᴇ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴇᴠᴇʀ—_ **

Blitzwing vision turned red, chucking the datapad across the room he had claimed as his own. It bounced off the wall, doing a couple flips before landing flat on the ground. The triple changer didn’t worry about the device breaking too much as he was more focused on being angry with himself.

With an irritated huff, Blitzwing laid down on his makeshift berth, clawing at his current face. Before remembering that he had no claws on his digits to dig into his faceplate. Lifting his servos off his face, Blitzwing stared at them. Big, strong, dangerous servos were something he had to get used to seeing over a thousand stellar cycles, yet he remember how they once were. Slim, sleek, and just as deadly as any other Seeker servos, though his were always a tad bit bigger and thicker than the rest

A long long time ago, Blitzwing was once a normal Seeker. Not exactly _normal_ per say, he was a special made Decepticon along with his siblings that were made by request of the former leader Megazarak. He never figured out why though. Any information of Megazarak’s original plans had been lost to time or destroyed along with factory he was built in so by the time he became curious enough to seek out the truth, everything was gone.

There were times that Blitzwing wondered if he should have been just a little bit more open minded about his view of everything, than he could at least had found something regarding to his and his siblings creation. But alas, he hadn’t. Not till he met his Hummel.

Still though, whatever it had been was long lost to the unknown as well as a few other things.

He honestly missed his old Seeker body. True while his current body was more powerful than ever before, small parts of him still clung to his old Seeker programing. Longing for a trine and missing his claws were just the small things. But there was one programing that he hadn’t realized he still had despite his current body.

An old Seeker programing that had been buried deep in every Seeker type bot ever made. One that Blitzwing hadn’t known he still had up until he had stopped seeing his Hummel after he returned his to his team. One that kept screaming inside his helm and his spark to find his Hummel to make sure he and their sparkling were okay as the ninja-bot kept claiming.

The Sparkling Protection Program. Blitzwing hadn’t been sure if he ever had it considering that he hadn’t acted very much like normal Seekers around sparklings stellar cycles ago. Then again, he hadn’t seen a lot of sparklings back then. Especially without another Seeker close by that already claimed the sparkling under their protection. But since he found out about the developing sparkling inside Hummel, the programing finally must have kicked in.

**_HARD._ **

Blitzwing hadn’t told Hummel about this, but the Decepticon felt absolutely **_TORTURED_** going megacycles without seeing him, struggling internally with himself to keep calm and follow his orders while wondering with worry if his family was doing alright without him there to protect them. Those nightly meetings over those two months had kept in check since he could see that his Hummel and sparkling were alright, but these last two deca-cycles felt like he was in the PIT itself!

More than once Blitzwing contemplated about sneaking out and trying to find Hummel, but he held back knowing it would only lead to trouble for all of them. And he didn’t want to cause trouble for his Hummel. It would be too great of risk for him and the sparkling.

 _I went fifty stellar cycles without seeing him, yet I can’t stand nearly an orbital cycle?!_ Blitzwing groaned. He cast a quick glance at the datapad. His internal clock told him it was nearing dusk, the sun would be setting soon to nightfall. A deep pain entered his spark. Sunsets, he had come to find out, were very beautiful. The colors against the sky with deep shades of red, golden orange, and vibrant deep violet were nothing he had ever seen on New Kaon or Cybertron. Seeing a bright blue sky turn to all those colors were stunning.

He often wondered why neither planet had such wonderful sunsets, but quickly shook it off. If dusk was coming, then that meant it there was still daylight outside. Since being sparked, Hummel had the tendency to recharge through most of the day and wake up when it was getting dark. The time he would slip away from the Decepticons and visit him, using the dark cover of night to hide him.

And if logic still stood, Hummel would be waking up soon. Blitzwing shifted off his poor in-place berth, grabbing the datapad. He may not be able to see Hummel anymore, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still message him. But what was the right thing to say to him?

Blitzwing stared at the datapad for a long while. It was buffed and scratched up in many places, haven gone through plenty of abuse and tossed against walls so many times Blitzwings had lost count long ago. Yet, despite everything it had gone through, the datapad still worked. Even after stellar cycles had passed since the day his Hummel had gifted it to him as a way to keep in contact with each other.

Blitzwing never held anything so dear to him than the very thing that kept his hope alive when his Hummel went missing all those stellar cycles ago. He remembered the nights he spent staring at the datapad, looking through the picture he and Hummel had taken together, the messages they sent each other back and forth, how they brought much joy and pain in his spark when looked through it all.

Opening his file, a small corner of his intake lifted as pictures of his Hummel flooded the screen. Each one was more precious than the last, ranging from one where Hummel was trying to do a handstand to one where he and Hummel were doing poses for no real reason. A giggling bubbled in his mouth as a photo of Hummel covered in pink paint appeared on the screen. The annoyed look on his face was just so darn cute with those puffed cheeks.

He remembered taking this the day Hummel tried to introduce him to painting. It had started out okay, but then he accidentally splattered his Hummel with some paint and an all-out paint war happened, with both sides getting covered in in bright colors and laughing like there was no tomorrow. It had ended with the whole ground being covered in paint and he and Hummel sharing a long deep kiss.

That day had been pure bliss for Blitzwing. Nothing but enjoying his time with his Hummel and feeling free. Free than he ever felt before.

Swiping the photo aside, his smile grew fonder. This was his latest picture, one that had his spark swelling the pride. Hummel leaning against him, looking relaxed with a small smile on his face plate with his chest wide open, showing both sparks inside him. It had been taken at an odd angle due to his height and his Hummel laying against him, but he managed to get a nice shot of his little lover and the small red and blue spark they created together.

He treasured this photo immensely, feeling pride and joy fill his spark knowing he had helped make the spark inside his Hummel. He could spend megacycles staring at the photo.

Had a large black servo grabbed the datapad and yank it out of his grip.

Cold terror coursed through Blitzwing as he spun around, his spark stopping dead as Megatron, the very bot Blitzwing feared the most, held his datapad in his servo. His red optics were cold as he stared at the datapad that showed Blitzwing’s greatest secret. Silence hung heavy between them, deep and uncomfortable.

Inside his helm, Blitzwing was screaming, cursing at himself for being so careless. Megatron was the _last_ bot he ever wanted to find out about his secret relationship. No doubt he would see this as treachery, and Blitzwing knew what happened to traitors. He had seen Starscream’s body plenty of times while throwing it into the river outside the caves.

Megatron’s optics narrowed, gazing up from the photo to Blitzwing. His cold glare cutting deep into the triple changer, crushing Blitzwing’s datapad into bits in his iron grip.

Blitzwing could see death in his optics. Cold fury locked on his trembling form. Trying to come up with an excuse was pointless, Blitzwing could tell. And mercy was certainly off the table.

Without word or thought, Blitzwing sprang forward, slamming Megatron to the side with enough force to move him out of the way, barreling down the tunnel at high speed. He didn’t know where to go, but he was certain the warlord wasn’t going to let him get away with his spark still beating.

Lugnut’s wide form came into view, their optics meeting briefly, but it was enough for Blitzwing’s anger to surface. The big lug tried to swing at him, but Blitzwing had been faster, kicking him in the face and continued running as the dummkopf fell to the ground. Seeing the exit not far ahead of him, Blitzwing ran faster, mentally thanking his Hummel for all those races they had together, and burst outside, transforming into jet mode and flying high into the air.

“ ** _BLITZWING!_** ” Even from a high altitude and the wind rushing past his frame, Blitzwing heard Megatron’s angry scream echo into the sky clearly, not bothering to look back as the sounds of a helicopter and war jet followed behind him.

He didn’t want to stop and fight. He was out numbered, out matched. The only thing he could do was run. Run far as he could go. Megatron would no doubt follow him for justice against this treachery, but Blitzwing didn’t care. As long as the warlord only focused on him, he could possibly lead him far away from the city. Far from his Hummel. From his developing sparkling.

From his family.

A deep set determination bubbled in his tank. Megatron would never get his digits on his family. Not while he was still online.

“ _COME AND GET ME JOU VALKING ZCRAP HEEP!_ ” Blitzwing had no clue why he would shout such a thing, but it certainly had Megatron’s focus. Cannon fires rang out with missiles to follow suit.

Having gotten their attention, Blitzwing maneuvered himself so he was flying away from the city towards the fading sun on the horizon, keeping the warlord focus on him with shouts of insults that enraged the Decepticon leader to no end. He didn’t care that his chance of survival was dwindling greatly. As long as his family was safe from the warlord’s deadly grasp that was all that mattered to him.

* * *

**_Communication Denied. Invalid Recipient._ **

Bee’s spark dropped as he read those four words. He had wanted to send Blitzwing a quick message, a quick little note to let his lover know he was alright and share recent news about the sparkling. Just a small ‘ _Hey Blitz! Ben mising u lots! Gues wht? Our sparkling’s a femm! U owe me a date <3~!_’, but the moment he tried to send it, those four words appeared on the screen.

He knew Blitzwing still had the datapad he had given the Con stellar cycles ago. He had paid with his own scruples he managed to save up to get the best long lasting datapad that could deal with a lot of damage. Knowing Blitzwing, the bot tended to throw things when he got upset, so Bee wanted to make sure his gift lasted a long while.

But seeing those words on his screen, Bee felt dread.

He knew the address to Blitzwing’s datapad. He knew he wasn’t miss typing anything. But seeing those words, Bee’s emotions were escalating. What happened? Why was the communication denied? Why was it invalid? Why didn’t it go through? Was something wrong? Had something gone wrong? What—

“Mm, bee?” Bumblebee’s thoughts stopped, snapping his helm down to see Sari rubbing her eyes yawning.

“… oh, hey. Sorry did I… did I wake you?” Bee put on a false grin, hiding the datapad under his pillow as Sari opened her eyes.

“A bit. You were kind of breathing heavily.” Sari blinked a bit, looking at her friend sleepily. “… what are you doing up? Bad nightmare?”

Bumblebee licked his glossa around his lips, venting a bit before nodding. “Y-yeah. Bad nightmare. Just a b-bad nightmare.”

Sari smiled at him, patting him arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe from any bad dreams.”

He gave her a soft smile, not wanting to argue with her that she couldn’t physically fight dreams. “I feel a bit better knowing that. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Sari smiled, snuggling up against Bee’s side and promptly went back to sleep. Ever since he had come back, Sari had stuck next to him like glue, never leaving his side unless she needed to. The first night had been terrible for her, and had resorted to snuggling up to Bee while he recharged at night just to be sure he was still there in the morning. Bumblebee didn’t have the spark to deny Sari her small form of comfort, and if he was honest, he rather liked her company. Feeling a small form next to him was oddly comforting to him.

Waiting a while to be sure she was really sleeping, Bee pulled out his datapad again, looking at it with worry. Wondering if Blitzwing was doing okay.


	21. Tricks (SwinLock)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small warning, mention of retching in chapter

_“One more card and it's twenty two~”_

_A deck of cards, all fifty two, get shuffled and sorted between two wide large servos. Masterful digits, despite their thickness, easily shuffle card after card, doing small tricks in-between the sorting display. With mastered skilled servo gestures and stellar cycles of practice, Swindle performed master feet after master feet, putting his skills on display for anyone to watch and be astonished by. Though his audience was only himself and his companion._

_“Unlucky for him again~”_

_With a wave of his servo, the joker of spades appeared seemingly out of nowhere in Swindle’s servo, shooting the bounty hunter a smirk. Lockdown just scoffed._

_“He never had respect for money it's true~”_

_Showing off a few more tricks, Swindle dance to a silent tune, moving the cards about in a way that they were moving on their own. From the corner of his optic, he could see Lockdown following his every movement and gesture with slight hints of interest in his optics. A smirk played on his intake, keeping his little show up to keep those optics train on him and him alone._

_“That's why he never wins~”_

_Swinging his hips with each step as they walked, Swindle did a little dance while managing to keep doing cards tricks as the pair traveled. In the far distance was Lockdown’s ship, the Death’s Head. The merchant had grown used to seeing the ship with a bright smirk on his faceplate. For when the Death’s Head was nearby, so was a certain bounty hunter. Safety and business, all wrapped in one._

_“That's why he never had enough~”_

_With a skip and a hop, Swindle hopped up on a small ledge, giving him a height boost that put him optic to optic level with Lockdown. His intake curled into a full on sly smile, having the mercenary’s full focus on him that very moment. With full flourish, he held the cards out with one servo, all facing down so that none of the numbers showed. Motioning with his free servo, Swindle beckoned Lockdown to pick a card._

_“To treat his lady right~”_

_Lockdown gave him a bored look, but complied with the silent request. Reaching his only servo out, Lockdown plucked a card from the deck. He gave it a quick glance before sliding it back in the deck. Swindle quickly shuffled the deck, moving with such speed and accuracy that it was hard to see a clear focus of the cards. Then, with a wave of his servo and a snap of his digits, the whole deck disappeared. Swindle showed both of his servos to show he wasn’t hiding the deck anywhere on them. He then tapped the side of his helm, smirking at Lockdown. The bounty hunter looked at the merchant with a raised optic ridge before lifting his servo to his helm._

_“He just pushes away the hurt~”_

_Swindle covered his intake to stifle a laugh as Lockdown’s optics widen with surprise as he removed the card stuck to his helm. The mercenary looked at the card astonished, his jaw hanging open with true shock._

_“And says money don't matter tonight~”_

_Plucking the card from Lockdown’s servo, Swindle placed it back in the deck, tucking it away in a secret compartment in his arm and shutting it with a quick flick of his digit. Hopping down from the ledge, Swindle danced around the slightly stunned hunter, shaking his hips in sway that always made those bright burn red optics turn and linger on him._

_“Money don't matter tonight~”_

_As he danced, Swindle’s digits brushed against Lockdown’s hip, earning a small jump from the hunter. Their optics met for a brief moment, locking onto each other. Violet to red. A coy smile appeared on Swindle’s face as Lockdown’s intake slowly grew into that dastardly smirk, understanding Swindle’s hidden invitation. His servo reached to make a grab at Swindle, but the merchant was quicker and evaded capture. Like a game of cyber cat and mouse, Swindle dodged and avoided Lockdown’s grasp, smiling wider and wider as he danced around the bot._

_“It sure didn't matter yesterd—HEY!”_

_Swindle yelped as Lockdown’s hook looped around his neck, pulling him towards the bigger bot all the way till his chin was touching again the mercenary’s chest. His wide purple optics stared up at the dangerous mech, looking at his red optics with a dangerous smirk on his faceplate._

_“Gotcha.” Lockdown growled lowly, his chest vibrating with his deep voice. His optics were narrowed with a dangerous glint in them, his smirk showing a hint of his denta. An aura of dominance was around him, giving off a show of power and control. All this would have anyone shaking in their armor at a mere sight of him like this. And Swindle was shaking._

_With desire._

_A sly smirk curled on his intake, humming as he easily removed Lockdown’s hook from around his neck. “Hey now. I was just getting to the good part.” With a wink, Swindle took a step back but was quickly pulled back against Lockdown’s chest. It was warm. Lockdown was warm. Intoxicatingly warm._

_Offlinning his optics, Swindle sunk deep against Lockdown’s chest while his arms wrapped around the mercenary’s waist, taking in the mech’s heat. He felt the bounty hunter stiffen under his touch, smirking at the knowledge that he could still catch the hunter off-guard, before feeling his body relax and those mismatch arms wrap around him._

_Swindle relaxed against Lockdown, taking in the warmth the hunter’s body was producing, greedily taking it all in. A small part of Swindle knew he was being very unprofessional right now, but he could hardly bring himself to care at the moment. Any thought’s to stop and act like the whole thing never happened were dashed when Lockdown started nipping his neck cables. Swindle shivered, biting his lower lip and moving his helm so Lockdown had more room to bite on his neck._

_It started out with small, gentle nipping, small enough that Swindle barely felt it touching his plating. Those nips turned into bites, not hard enough to dent his plating, but hard enough to send shocks through his body, pulling soft small noises from Swindle, urging the hunter to continue on. Lockdown obligated, biting down harder on Swindle’s neck. Swindle’s thick digits traced the seams in Lockdown’s back plating, feeling the black and green mech shiver with delight and rewarding Swindle with a strong bite between his shoulder and neck._

_The merchant gasped, throwing his helm back with sheer delight. His engine revved, shuddering under the hunter’s power. He blinked in confusion when Lockdown released his trapped plating before his intake was captured in a quick kiss. Swindle invented sharply, moaning with delight and disappointment as the kiss ended too soon._

_“Hey.” Lockdown whispered huskily, bushing his intake against Swindle’s receptor and spoke in a barely audible voice. Swindle’s optics widen greatly as his engine revved loudly. Wordlessly, Swindle nodded with a shy smile on his intake. Lockdown grinned, pulling him towards the Death’s Head._

Swindle opened his optics, the memory fading away as he came back to reality. That memory happened over a thousand stellar cycles ago, yet he still remembered it so clearly. He blamed the planet for bringing such memory to the surface of his processor. It had been a thousand stellar cycles since he had been here, having avoided coming here due to being hunted by the Elite Guard and angry game tenders he cheated money out of.

Surprisingly, the casino hadn’t been fixed, despite being a thousand stellar cycles ago since Lockdown had burned it down after a nasty bar fight. But in the mercenary’s defense, he didn’t even start it. A pair of drunk bots were fighting and one of them threw a chair that missed its intended target and hit Lockdown on the back. And after that… _wellll_ let’s just say Swindle had a surprisingly fun time watching the whole place get turned upside down by the bounty hunter’s fury before having to pull Lockdown out of there when the fire started getting out of control.

It was a memory he and Lockdown had laughed over when they were both high on high grade.

“… why did I come here?” Swindle asked himself, gazing around the area. He honestly didn’t know why he took a detour, he had no reason to be here. It was just one of the many planets he had lost interest once it had lost value on it. But this planet. This one had fond memories on it. Even if Swindle didn’t tend to think back on them often.

Memories were like weapons. They either had worth to them to be remembered, or completely useless and tossed aside to be forgotten. Weapons were his expertise, a little something he had gained skills from as a sparkling before entering the Autobot boot camp. He had a skill in spotting the rare and valuable weapons with a glance.

Shaking his helm, Swindle sighed, taking out his special deck of cards and started doing tricks with them. Another skill he had picked up a long time ago before he became a Decepticon, one he found relaxing if not a bit challenging. Swindle was far from a gambling bot, but he did enjoy a good game or two if he felt like making a few quick bucks now and then. Or to make a fool out of someone. It was satisfying seeing those shocked faces when some poor chap lost to him after a long poker battle. It was even more satisfying when he collected the win—

Swindle’s optics widen, dropping all the cards as he grabbed his middle and intake. Dashing over to a pile of stones, he leaned against them as his tank proceeded to empty out its continents harshly. Once his tank had finished emptying itself, Swindle heaved heavily, wiping his intake as he stared with a blank expression.

 _… that’s the fifth time that’s happened._ Swindle thought grimly. _Is it something I’m eating that’s causing this? Or is it… something else?_ Swindle lightly touched his chest, frowning a bit. He hadn’t had any trouble during the carrying process. Not until recently.

At the beginning of the fourth orbital cycle, Swindle felt a little of. At first, he just ignored it. But as time went on, it got worse to the point he could barely keep anything down in his tank. And it was concerning Swindle a bit. He had missed an appointment to a medical center seven solar cycles ago, so he wasn’t sure what was going on with him.

“I hope there’s nothing going wrong in there.” Swindle tapped the glass of his hood. “You’re supposed to be growing a body in there, not make your carrier sick.” He smiled a bit. “Though, if you are trying to make me sick, you’re doing a pretty good job of it.” Standing, Swindle went over to the cards, picking them up as he spoke to the small life growing inside him. “You must get that from your sire. He’s a complete aft sometimes. I hope you don’t take after him much when you decide to come out.”

He paused a bit. “… I don’t doubt that you’ll want to know who your sire is when you get older. And I know you have the right to know… but, to be fair I-I can’t tell you.” Swindle frowned, resuming picking up the cards. “I do like him. More than any bot I’ve ever known. But… h-he’s not the nicest bot around. And… he didn’t take the news about you very well.” Swindle shuddered, remembering the pain in his left optic and the angry voice as he ran for his life.

“I can’t ever tell you who he is… and I can’t tell him the truth.” Swindle’s shoulders sagged. “I wanted to tell him but… but I can’t. Not if it means having both our lives ending by his servo.” Swindle hugged himself around his chest. “And he’s good at keeping those promises.” He hugged himself for a good long while, casting a look in the sky. “… No doubt he’s still angry at me. He’ll probably kill me on the spot if he ever sees me again.”

Swindle could almost see Lockdown’s face glaring down at him. Anger and rage all over it with a look to kill. The arms dealer was sure that face would have been the last thing he ever saw.

Shaking his helm, he gathered the last of the cards and placed them back in the hidden compartment. “Don’t think about it. You’re okay as long as you don’t see him ever again…” For some reason, that last sentence dampened Swindle’s mood a bit. But he shook it off, heading back for the ship quickly before Luck started to wonder where he was.

Two solar cycles later while showing Luck a card trick, Swindle found he didn’t have every card in his deck. He was missing one. The ace of hearts.

* * *

 _Huh. They haven’t fixed the casino._ Lockdown noted as he walked. _Strange, thought they would have fixed that after a thousand stellar cycles._

The casino, as far as Lockdown remembered, had been pretty popular back then, despite its small size compared to other casinos. Swindle often dragged him there to gamble or to buy him a drink the arms dealer owed him out of the way. Though that usually ended with Swindle losing a lot of his currency to Lockdown in a game or fragging in the back after too many drinks Swindle ‘owed’ him.

Such a shame it burned to the ground. Though in his defense, he hadn’t been the one to start it. _But he did end it_. If those two drunks hadn’t hit him with that chair he wouldn’t have gotten mad and turned the whole place upside down. Though on the plus side, he remembered Swindle’s laughter through the whole commotion, seemingly enjoying the chaos Lockdown had stirred up. And the added plus was when the merchant had pulled him out when the fire had become serious straight for his ship which ended blissfully for both of them in his personal room.

Too bad the place was never fixed. He kinda liked that place. One of the very few that would let him in despite his infamous reputation. Other places either shut the doors on him or needing Swindle to get him in. Sure the bot could claim he wasn’t a gambler, but that was only if there wasn’t a bot he considered worthy of a challenge to take on.

And Lockdown still held that record of worthy challenger the very first time Swindle tried playing against him.

Shaking his helm, he looked away from the burned building. He wasn’t here for memory lane, he was on a job tracking down a new bounty. The lead stopped at here, and he needed to pick up the trail again before it got cold.

Something on the ground caught Lockdown’s attention. At first he was just going to ignore it and keep looking for a lead, but he stopped and took a good look at it. It was a card, one with an interesting back design that almost looked… familiar. Bending down, he picked up a card and flipped it over.

It was an ace of hearts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Swindle was singing was Prince Money Don’t Matter 2 Night


	22. Outside (ShockBlurr)

“Outside?”

Shockwave gazed up from the datapad he was looking over to the end of the couch. Shockrr, his sweet little bitlet, was hanging off the arm of the couch, gazing at him intently with those deep royal blue optics. Shockrr was now two and a half stellar cycles old and filled to the brim with energy that caused his creators so much trouble, but Shockwave enjoyed his little one immensely.

More of his features were started to show, being a perfect blend of his Autobot disguise and Blurr. His antenna had grown to a small horn on top his helm, though surprisingly Shockwave had noticed early on that there was a small smooth groove right in the middle of the tip. At first Shockwave didn’t pay it much heed, but over time the groove started reaching down, getting deeper and deeper to the point it was starting to be noticeable by other bots. He had brought this up to Blurr, who happily assured him that it wasn’t anything to freak over.

_“Each/antenna/in/my/family/line/are/always/different/and/uniqe/to/each/bot/with/no/two/antennas/alike./You/saw/Gran’s/antenna/right?/How/instead/of/being/straight/it/slicks/back/and/curls/up/and/inwards?/Shockrr/is/sure/to/be/fine/so/it’s/really/nothing/to/worry/too/much/about.”_

There was still no signs of indication to Shockwave’s true form on his young one, and aside that Shockrr was a bit bigger than most bitlets his age, he looked rather normal to an Autobot’s stand point.

“Outside!” The mechling smiled, seeing he had gotten his sire’s attention and slapping the armrest with vigor. “Outside! Outsi—”

“Oh/no/you/don’t.” Shockrr let out a small beep of surprise as Blurr came up behind him and scooped him up. “You’re/not/bothering/your/sire/to/take/you/outside/while/he’s/working/young/bot./You’ve/already/been/outside/today/for/your/daily/run.” Blurr bonked his helm lightly against Shockrr’s.

The tiny mechling whine, flailing his arms out and kicking his stabilizers. “No carwier! No ups! Runs! Want runs!”

Blurr sighed as Shockwave chuckled, setting the datapad down. “Quite energetic isn’t he?”

“You/have/no/idea.” Blurr huffed, pressing the struggling mechling to his chest. “He’s/getting/more/and/more/restless/each/passing/solar/cycle/to/go/outside/for/a/run.”

“Outside!”

“No.” Blurr tapped Shockrr on the faceplate. “You’ve/had/enough/running/today/it’s/time/for/recharge.”

“No! No wecharge! Want runs! Sire! Help!” Shockrr whined as Blurr carried him off to his room. Shockwave chuckled, shaking his helm.

* * *

 _It’s pretty slow today._ Cliffjumper thought, drumming his digits on the desk. _Though I guess that’s kinda good. Not a lot of work to do and not up to my helm in datapads that need to be done overnight,_ He cast a glance at Longarm’s office. His optics drifted up for a quick glance at the clock, noting that Longarm would be done with his shift soon to go home. _Though it could be worse. Longarm’s certainly got his servos full managing this place and a sparkling. Wonder how the kid is doing?_

“Hello/Cliffjumper!”

“Gak!” Cliffjumper jumped a bit in his seat as Blurr appeared in front of him. “Blurr! For slag sake you need to stop doing that!”

“Oh/sorry/I/didn’t/mean/to/startle/you/I’m/just/here/to/drop/off/this/datapad/Longarm/forgot/at/home.” Blurr held up the datapad in his servos. “Just/a/quick/in/and/out.”

“Yeah yeah.” Cliffjumper sighed as Blurr disappeared into Longarm’s office. A few cycles passed before Blurr came out again, smiling brightly with a skip in his step before waving Cliffjumper goodbye and running off. He didn’t understand what Blurr and Longarm saw in each other that they liked so much about. Blurr was fast, distant, and hard to keep up in a conversation and Longarm was a friendly, open, caring bot who was almost always buried in work. Yet those two worked well together enough. Well enough to have a—

“Hi!”

“Gah!” Cliffjumper jumped again, looking up to see… no one. The red Autobot blinked, looking around but finding no one but himself in the hall.

“Down here!”

The bot blinking, slowly getting up from his seat and looking over his desk. A small young bitlet smiled up at him. He almost thought somebot lost their bitlet wandering off and managed to find their way here, but Cliffjumper recognized those royal deep blue optics anywhere. _A gushing Longarm with several photos he just_ **had** _to show everyone for two orbital cycles straight helped with that._

“… unbelievable.” Cliffjumper sighed, slapping his faceplate. “What crazy bot brings their sparkling with them to work?”

“No one!”

“I wasn’t asking you.” Cliffjumper gave the sparkling a pointed stare. Shockrr ignore it and tried grasping at the desk’s edge, not quite tall enough to grab it. Even while standing on the tips of his peds and jumping a bit he still couldn’t reach.

Cliffjumper gave the sparkling an odd look, but didn’t try to stop them. Instead, he opened his commlink. “Longarm sir? Your random o’clock is here.”

{ _Random o’clock? Is this some sort of joke Cliffjumper?_ }

“Do you know me to be a _joking_ type of bot sir?”

{ _… well… no not really. But can’t this wait? I’m busy at the moment with work I need finishing up._ }

“Look, there’s a bot out here who I think you should see _right this instant_.” Cliffjumper insisted, keeping an optic on the young mech busy trying to get up on his desk. There was a small pause before the commlink shut off. A cycle later, the door to Longarm’s office open with an irritated Longarm on the other side.

“—couldn’t wait, just when I was just finishing up—” Longarm’s optics landed on his sparkling, widening in shock as the pair froze and stared at each other. “… Sh… SHOCKRR?!”

“Uh oh!” Was all the bitlet said before running off.

“ _Oh slag, not again!_ ” Longarm ran to the open door of the building, watching the orange blur run off in the distance. “Frag!” He quickly turned to Cliffjumper with a frantic look. “Cliffjumper, I’m leaving early today I need _tocatchmysparklingokaybye!_ ” With that the Prime transformed as sped away after his offspring.

“… I take that this is a regular thing?!” Cliffjumper shouted to the fleeing vehical.

“ _YOU HAVE NO IDEA!_ ” Longarm shouted back.

* * *

Shockrr was no stranger to being chased.

In fact, the little mechling _loved_ it when his creators chased him. Though his sire was slow, his carrier was just as fast as him so it made it fun. What was even more fun was running around outside where there was plenty of things to look at and bots to startle running by.

Though he didn’t understand why his creators were so freaked out when he ran outside without them. There was nothing bad about it. He was just outside running around without them. They didn’t need to get so emotional about it.

Shockrr ran down a hall to a wide open area, running past surprised bots when his optics spotted a single bot out of everyone else. The bitlet slowed to a walk, keeping his optics on the bot. Tilting his helm, Shockrr moved towards the bot till he stood right next to them.

The bot was big. _Huge_ in fact. Almost as tall as his sire when he grew big. Shockrr never understood how his sire grew and shrank when every other bot just turned into those weird box things.

“There’s still matters on Decepticon monitoring sir. We’ve seen a few scouts flying around, but none of them have been getting close enough to engage any threat to Cybertron.”

The big bot hummed as the other bot spoke to him, nodding his helm in understanding. “And what about our constant visitor at the sector 5? Any clues on them?”

“None so far sir. They stay out of the radars range from the settlement. They don’t seem to be doing anything and none of the scouts found anything on the asteroids they landed on… do you think this might be a neutral bot sir?”

“I very much doubt it. I would rather keep an optic on this bot’s movements and see what they’re planning. There must be a reason why… are you paying attention?”

“Oh! Sorry Ultra Magnus sir! I was distracted by another bot right beside you!”

“Hm?” The big bot shifted his gaze from the bot down to Shockrr.

The little bot froze up. His sire was a big bot, but something about this bot made him feel… small.

“… Why hello there young one.” The big bot slowly got down to one knee, lowering himself till he was a bit smaller, though still rather big. Shockrr took a small step back. This bot felt scary to him. Like when Ci-Ci got angry with sire. “You look rather familiar.”

“Ultra/Magnus/sir/I/have/your/—/SHOCKRR?!” Shockrr’s helm snapped towards the familiar sound of his carrier’s voice. The blue agent stood a little ways off with a datapad in his servo. Wasting no time, Shockrr ran towards his carrier, flinging himself at them and hugging their stabilizer tightly.

“Ah, agent Blurr. I take it this little one is yours?”

“Y-y-yes/sir/my/apologies/sir.” Blurr picked Shockrr up. The bitlet wrapped his arms around Blurr’s neck, burying his faceplate against his carrier’s neck as Blurr walked over to the Magnus, handing him the datapad. “Shockrr/has/a/bad/tenancy/to/leave/home/without/supervision/and/sneak/out/when/no/one/is/looking/it’s/something/me/and/Longarm/are/trying/to/curve/out/of/him.”

“I see.” The Magnus looked at the datapad. “And how are you three doing?”

“We’re/fine/just/fine/nothing/to/worry/about/expect/trying/to/keep/an/optic/on/this/little/one/right/here.” Blurr bounced Shockrr a bit, but the bitlet held on to him tighter. Blurr glanced at his sparkling with a frown. Shockrr rarely hugged him this tight. “Speaking/of/whom/I/better/get/him/home.”

“Of course.” Ultra Magnus nodded his helm, turning back to the bot he was speaking with earlier as Blurr left. Shockrr peeked over his carrier’s shoulder at the Magnus. Even as he got further and further away from him, the big bot still scared him.

* * *

“I can’t believe he got out again. That’s the fourth time this deca-cycle!” Longarm sighed as he and Blurr headed for home. Blurr had filled him in on finding Shockrr, relieving the worried sire and deciding to walk home with his family.

“I/know.” Blurr sighed, shifting Shockrr in his hold. “Maybe/we/should/get/Gran/to/watch/him/more/often/cause/then/at/least/somebot/can/keep/watch/over/them/while/we/work.”

Longarm frowned a bit. “Well… are you sure we can’t call on someone else?”

“ _Longarm_ /I/know/you/and/Gran/don’t/get/along/too/well/but/it/would/really/be/the/best/if—”

“There you are!” The pair stopped walking, turning around to see a fuming Sentinel marching towards them. “Longarm! What’s the meaning of skipping out from your duty?! I have an important data that needed your attention immediately but Cliffjumper had informed me you left early!”

Longarm frowned deeply on the inside as he turned to address the fuming bot. “I had urgent matters that needed my attention. I was merely doing my duty—”

“Your duty is back at the office making sure everything is in order!” Sentinel barked. “Not chase after run away sparklings!”

“Sentinel I understand work is important, but this was my own sparkling that—”

“I don’t care if it was yours or some other bots sparkling! Your duty comes first before anything else! If anyone should be looking after your sparkling it should be the carrier not you! A carrier is good for only one thing and that’s—”

“ _BIG FRAGGING SLAG_ _AFT MEGA CHIN!_ ”

…

Wide optics slowly looked at the sparkling in Blurr’s arms. Shockrr, unaware of the stares on him, was pointing a single digit at Sentinel. Or more accurately, his big chin his creators kept talking about without the very bot who owned in hearing distance. Everyone stared at the small sparkling in shock while one of Sentinel’s optics slowly twitched.

“… Rrrright. Uh.” Longarm shifted his gaze to the stunned Sentinel, putting on a friendly smile that didn't reach his optics. “We’ll… w-we’ll just be taking Shockrr back home now.” He grabbed Blurr, pulling the stunned bot with him for home with equally stunned bystanders watching them go.

Silence was around them as they made it back to their building, heading straight for their apartment. Not a word was spoken between them, not even when they got to their room and shut the door behind them.

They stood there, quiet and motionless…

… and then proceeded to burst out laughing.

“ _Oh My Primus!_ I can’t! I can’t believe he said that!” Longarm gasped as he laughed, doubling over and holding his sides. He laughed so hard his disguise came undone. “I-I can’t believe he just said that! To Sentinel’s own _face!_ ”

“I/know!” Blurr howled with laughter, falling to his knees and hugging Shockrr close. “Oh/I/wish/I/was/recording/that/that/was/ _priceless!_ ”

Both bots fell to the ground in laughter. Shockrr was confused a moment before joining in, not sure why his creators were laughing but didn’t want to be left out of it.


	23. Pain (BlitzBee)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of violence and robot blood being drawn

_He didn’t recall much when he first awoken, only that he stood in a room surrounded by offlined bots with servos covered in pink. He didn’t know what had transpired or why, but he did know that he was a new bot and was alive._

_His life had been a blur from his awakening, so he didn’t recall much of besides the pain, the nights locked in a dark cell for being labeled as a danger hazard, and the countless fights he had been put through to prove his worth. What he did remember clearly was the day he was giving a name. His name, his designation. Given to him after his worth had been proven and he could finally leave that retched place for good._

_He also remember the bot who gave him that name. A big, heavily battled scared mech with optics that sent shivers up and down his spinal strut by a mere gaze. He didn’t it back then, but he had stood before Megazarak, the leader of the Decepticons. A cold cruel Con that few would go against and disrespect and put many in their place for any failed order. Being around that mech felt wrong to him._

_The mech only glance at him one time before uttering his designation and moved on. The feeling of fear hadn’t left him for a long time after that solar cycle. And it was that very solar cycle he knew he never wanted to go up against mechs like that him. Ever._

* * *

Heavy foot falls thundered against the ground. Blitzwing ran deep into the forest, pushing past trees and foliage as he tried escaping his pursuers. In some other situation, Blitzwing would have tried hiding his tracks and find some place to lay low for a while. But he needed to make sure that he would still be followed, needing to be sure they wouldn’t lose his trail and go after the bot he loved.

Shoving a tree aside, Blitzwing cast a quick glance to the sky. He couldn’t see any sign of Megatron or Lugnut anywhere above him. Thick dark clouds covered his view for any sign air crafts following him. A couple of times he mistook a rumble of thunder of an air craft engine but always found no war jet in sight when he looked. The pain in his right wing reminded him to keep moving less he wanted his whole body to be blown to smithereens like his wing.

Dashing deeper into the forest, Blitzwing blindly ran for his life. Two solar cycles Megatron and Lugnut had chased after him after finding out his secrete. Two solar cycles of firing their weapons at him nonstop even as they flew into unfamiliar territory away from the city. Away from the war they should focus on instead of a traitor. But that was okay. Their focus was only on him and not his Hummel.

_Hummel._

How was his Hummel doing? Was he okay? Was the sparkling doing okay? Were they both okay? Were the Autobots treating him differently now that they knew his secrete? Had they started treating him badly because he was dating a Decepticon for so long behind their backs?

Should he go back?

 _No!_ Blitzwing shook his helm, gritting his denta. He couldn’t go back. Not now. Not while the looming threat was after him. He had to make sure that threat stayed focused on him and far away from his family. Far from his Hummel and child.

Bursting through the trees, Blitzwing came to a dead stop in a clearing. Before him stood Megatron, standing on a high stone hill, towering over Blitzwing like the imposing figure he was, casting a dark shadow over him as his blazing optics glared down at him. A strike of lighting split the sky behind Megatron, flashing with a loud thundering crack that echoed in the sky, illuminating the warlord’s face for just a brief moment, brief but long enough for Blitzwing to see the anger on his face.

Blitzwing stood frozen, unsure of what to. The forest was behind him and he was tempted to run again to put so distance between him and Megatron, but his stabilizers refused to move, too frozen in fear to do so.

Megatron must have seen this weakness as in a flash he jumped down from the hill, landing in front of Blitzwing who didn’t even have time to think of anything before a black fist servo came flying at his faceplate and sending him to the ground. Pain wasn’t something new to him, but that didn’t mean he was ever used to it.

“ _Pathetic._ ” Megatron growled above him. “One of my greatest fighters, reduced to _this_.” Blitzwing cringed as a heavy ped slammed on his back, pinning him to the ground. “I shoulder have ended you the moment you started showing signs of treachery with your loyalty Blitzwing.” Megatron dug his ped deep into Blitzwing’s back and the triple changer bit his lip to keep from screaming. “But I was too lenient. Turning a blind optic to your antics for the stellar cycles of loyal servitude to the Decepticon cause. I was even a little happy for you when rumors went around that you found someone.”

The weight on Blitzwing’s back lifted before slamming down on him, this time earning a cry of pain. “But had I known you were seeing an _Autobot_ , an _enemy_ of our faction, you would have dead long ago. But I won’t make the same mistake twice now. First.” Megatron’s ped dug deep in Blitzwing’s back. “I’m going to make you suffer for this traitorous act you’ve been doing for centuries behind my back. Then, once I’m through with you, _I think I’ll visit your little mechfriend_.”

Blitzwing’s spark stopped.

“Which Autobot was it again? The small pesky yellow scout? _Tsk._ To think you would fall for such a _weak_ , _insolent_ , _loud mouth_ Autobot like that.” Megatron’s ped lifted up. “I almost _pity_ you.”

Megatron slammed his ped down, but Blitzwing flipped himself over, catching the limb before it could connect to his body. The action caught Megatron by surprise, giving Blitzwing the opportunity to lift up one stabilizer and kick the warlord right in the middle, sending him flying back a few feet by the force. Sitting up, Blitzwing slowly stood to his peds, vision filled with red as he glared angrily at Megatron.

“ ** _Never_** call my Hummel _veak_ , _insolent_ , or _loud mouthed_.” His cannons lowered, charging with power. “Jou don’t know him like _I_ do.”

* * *

_Bright blue._

_He had seen optics with that color plenty of times in his life. Usually fill with anger and fear before they turned deep grey or blown to smithereens. It had been a long while since he had ever seen optics of that color again. And he would love nothing more than to be rid of them._

_Were it not his own curiosity stopping him from doing so._

_“Vhy are jou looking at me like zat?” Blitzwing studied the small yellow bot staring up at him. At first he had mistaken them for a scraplet due to their small size, but when he saw those blue optics, he immediately realized it was an Autobot._

_A very… very small Autobot._

_Blitzwing wasn’t sure if Autobots were supposed to be this small. He hadn’t seen one for centuries, but he was sure they were at least taller than this. At most, Autobot’s tended to reach a height below his chest or to his knees. But this one was so small, they could fit right in the palm of his servo and still be tiny enough for his digits to close around them perfectly._

_But it wasn’t just the size that put him off. It was those optics. Big and wide and blue. And largely lacking any fear or anger in them._

_It was… unnerving seeing an enemy stare up at him without the usual fear and anger in them. If anything, it was completely_ **wrong** _for a bot to even look at him indifferently. But here was someone defying an unwritten law like it was nothing._

_Should he feel impressed? No, but he did anyway. Just a smidgen._

_“… Tall.” Blitzwing blinked, surprised that the tiny Autobot finally said something. The tiny yellow bot was pointing at him with an impossibly tiny digit. “Tall.”_

_“… er… ja. Ja I am… tall.”_

_The tiny Autobot continued to stare at him, but their intake slowly turned into a beaming bright smile._

* * *

The memory of who attacked who first was lost between the two battling Decepticons, not that it would have mattered much in the current situation.

Blitzwing’s cannons fired at Megatron, keeping him from jumping into the air where he would have the advantage over the downed triple changer. On and off they switched to using weapons to fighting with their servos, trading blows and hits that would surly leave a few scars afterwards if one of them managed to make it out alive.

Blitzwing wasn’t a fool. He knew he couldn’t win against Megatron. The warlord had fought Megazarak and won and no one had dared tried to fight him after the last opponent was killed thinking they could easily beat him. No one could expect to go one on one against Megatron and win.

But Blitzwing wasn’t looking to win.

While it was common knowledge that Megatron was powerful, he wasn’t immortal. He could gain and receive wounds like any other bot can. He might have thick armor, but Blitzwing was sure he could weaken the warlord enough to flee again. Megatron would surely need to recover from such wounds first before wasting time chasing a traitor.

Megatron dodged Blitzwing’s fist, jumping to the air for an aerial attack. Without thinking, Blitzwing transformed into his tank form, taking aim at Megatron and fired. The shot hit directly on one of Megatron’s stabilizers, hitting the thruster inside dead on. Though it wasn’t what he wanted to aim at, it got direct results. Megatron fell through the air, crashing to the ground.

At once Blitzwing transformed back into robot mode and dashed over to the down warlord, pouncing on him from behind as he was getting up. Quickly he grabbed the arm that held his deadly fusion cannon and held it away while his switched to Random, opening him intake impossibly wide and biting down hard on the neck cables. The taste of energon filled his intake as Blitzwing dug his sharp denta deep into the important wires, cutting through cables and staining the grey metal with pink.

At once Megatron tried getting him off, punching him with his free servo. Blitzwing responded by biting down deeper. He wasn’t going to let go so easily. Not after the Con had insulted his Hummel. Deeper and deep Blitzwing dug his denta in Megatron’s neck cables, while Megatron continued to struggle to get out of Blitzwing’s deadly hold.

Again and again, Megatron punched Blitzwing’s face, but Blitzwing wouldn’t let go. Not without making sure Megatron learned a hard lesson about insulting a mech’s mechfriend. With a sharp twist of his helm, Blitzwing tore out a good chunk of Megatron neck cables, spreading pink energon everywhere.

A scream of pain filled anger filled the sky. Megatron’s free servo grabbed Blitzwing’s neck, throwing the mech over his shoulder. The triple changer recovered quickly, spitting out the torn cables and shot a nasty glare at his leader.

 ** _No._** Megatron was no longer his leader. He was a traitor, a bot who abandon his loyalty. A giggle bubbled in his intake as he stood.

But had he really been loyal? What had the Decepticons ever done to him that ever earned his loyalty? Creating him? Forcing him to fight a war? Giving him orders left and right and being punished for the smallest of things? Living in fear for his life if he didn’t follow Megatron’s cause?

No, no he was never loyal. He had only been someone who had been built to fight till he died. No one had ever earned his loyalty and he certainly won’t give it to anyone who hadn’t earned it.

With a scream, Blitzwing charged at Megatron.

* * *

_“Why is it that Decepticons can fly, but not Autobots?”_

_Blitzwing gazed down at the small Autobot. He hadn’t grown much from his last visit, which concerned the larger bot a bit. He had only been gone at least six orbital cycles, he was sure the bot would have grown some._

_But he was still so tiny._

_“Vhy do jou ask?”_

_“Well… I donno.” The young bot shrugged. “FireTrail said that all Decepticons can fly, but not Autobots.” They stared up at him. “Why’s that?”_

Military proposes. _Blitzwing almost blurted out, but held his glossa. “Ve just can.” The large Seeker shrugged his shoulders. “Zough, not_ all _Decepticons fly.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Ja.” Blitzwing nodded his helm. “Zere are zome Decepticons who are ground based vehicles and cannot fly.”_

_The young bot stared at him for a moment before a smile broke out across his face. “Cool!”_

* * *

Heavy rain started falling from the sky, turning the once hard dirt into mud.

Splashes of energon covered the ground and small plants crushed and uprooted by two towering robots. Both were heavily damaged. One had a large missing chunk of his right wing, a large gash from his chest to his abdomen, a twisted left cannon, and an open wound on his left shoulder. His opponent fared better, with only a few deep gashes and dents littering his body with the only major wounds being his damaged thruster and neck which was bleeding very heavily.

Every part in Blitzwing’s body hurt and it was no lie that he was in bad shape. But he hardly cared at the moment. Megatron was still standing. Shaking where he stood, but still standing. Blitzwing wasn’t sure if he could run now being more damaged than Megatron. He wasn’t even sure he could last long.

Still, he did a good amount of damage on the warlord. That was something of no easy feat.

An angry scream tore through the air. But it didn’t come from Megatron. Or Blitzwing.

The triple changer only had a moment to blink before a heavy clawed punch hit him in the side, sending him flying towards the hill.

* * *

_“It’s All My Fault!”_

_“It vasn’t jour fault Kleiner.”_

_“Yes It Was!” His friend wailed, thick tracks of coolant streamed down his face. “If I Hadn’t Wandered O-Off Like That, Dusty Would Still Be Here!”_

_It hurt Blitzwing seeing his normally happy friend be so distraught and upset. “He_ saved _jou.”_

_“HE’S DEAD BECAUSE OF ME!”_

_“Neither of jou knew jou vere going to be attacked!”_

_“I Should Have Died With Him—!”_

_“ENOUGH!” Blitzwing grabbed his friend’s shoulder, forcing him to stop and look at him. “Don’t Jou EVER Zay Zat!”_

_“But It’s Tr—”_

_“No!” Blitzwing pulled him into a hug. He wasn’t good at this whole comfort thing, but physical contact always seemed to calm Kleiner down. “No it’s not true! Don’t ever zink zat it is! It vas all a misfortune zat fell on jou! Jou didn’t know vat vould happen and it’s not jour fault!” He hugged the little Autobot close. “Please, don’t ever zink zat. I. I’m zo zorry for vat happened Kleiner. Jou zhouldn’t have gone zrough zat.”_

_His friend was silent in his hold, frozen with no sound other than his ragged venting. Then, slowly, his arms came up and hugged him back. His venting hitched before he broke down again, wailing over the loss of his caretaker as Blitzwing held him tenderly._

* * *

Lugnut was always a heavy hitter.

Powerful and strong, not many would dare go against him. Blitzwing could though under normal circumstances. They had fought plenty of times in the past, verbally and physically. Yet Blitzwing would never go against him in a weakened state.

Punch after deadly punch, Blitzwing could feel himself slipping away. Pain and the taste of energon was all he could feel. It hurt. It really truly hurt.

“ _Enough!_ ”

Blitzwing barely heard it, but the punches had stopped. His face ached with pain as he forced his optic open. His vision was in fragment, cracks obscuring his view. But he could make out Megatron’s looming figure through the rain.

His body was dropped to the ground, leaving him there like a broken doll. He didn’t have the strength to look up as heavy footfalls approached him. If he could, he would have glared.

Something reached his audibles, but his receptors were so badly damaged, he couldn’t make out anything. Expect for a loud banging sound that was soon followed by a crushing force landing on top of him.

Darkness crept into his vision as the weight kept piling on top of him. The pain was too much and he couldn’t fight it off. Before he even knew it, everything went dark…

* * *

_“… li…”_

_“… in…”_

_“Bli… ing!”_

_“Blitz…!”_

_“Blitzwing! Blitzwing!”_

_The stone ground greeted him as Blitzwing’s systems slowly came back online. It took a couple of nanokliks for his processor to register his senses and to wonder what he was doing on the ground._

_“Blitzwing!” The Seeker blinked, moving his helm at the sound of his designation._

_“Bltzwing! Blitz!” Kleiner screamed and wailed, shaking the Seeker’s shoulder. “Blitz! Blitz! Blitz!”_

_“Kl… Kleiner?” Blitzwing mumbled quietly. Instantly the Autobot froze, snapping his helm towards Blitzwing face. Those big blue optics were filled with sadness and instantly Blitzwing wanted to get rid of that look in his Kleiner’s optics. “K-Kleiner.” The Seeker groaned as he pushed himself up, wondering briefly why he was on the ground but shoved it aside. “Kleiner va—”_

_A blur of bright yellow lunged at him, clinging around his neck with such speed that Blitzwing was taken by surprise before noting that his Kleiner was hugging him tightly. “B-Blitz! Blitz!”_

_“Kleiner?!”_

_“I thought you were_ dead! _Y-you were just lying there motionless a-and you weren’t moving an-and no matter how loud I screamed and shook you you wouldn’t wake up! I! I-I thought I_ killed _you!”_

_“Kleiner calm down!” Blitzwing wrapped his arms around his friend, rubbing his servos up and down their back to calm the little mech down. “I’m fine! Zee? I’m okay. Jou didn’t—” Blitzwing paused, thinking over Kleiner’s words carefully. “… vait. Vhy vould jou zink zat jou killed me?” He tried pulling his friend away to look them in the optics, but the little bot had a surprisingly good grip on him._

_Sighing, Blitzwing let them be, continuing to rub their back in comfort. “Kleiner. I’m okay. I’m fine. I promise.”_

_“I-I thought I killed you…” His Kleiner whispered quietly, hugging him tighter._

_“Vell jou didn’t.” Blitzwing shrugged, though he still had no recollection of what happened or how he ended up on the ground. “Zo zere’s no need to cry about it.”_

_“B-but—”_

_“Shh.” Blitzwing hugged his friend. “I’m fine. I don’t remember vat happened, but I’m fine.”_

_His Kleiner was silent for a moment before his grip eased up, moving back to look at Blitzwing. “You… you promise?”_

_“On my very zpark.” Blitzwing smiled. Kleiner stared at him for a long moment, looking at him up and down before looking back at his face. They stared at each other for a long moment before Kleiner’s face broke out into a smile._

_The yellow Autobot sighed, wrapping his arms around Blitzwing’s neck again and buried his face against the Seeker’s cables. “Don’t scare me like that ever again.” He mumbled against the Con, hugging him close._

_Blitzwing sighed and smiled, hugging his little friend close. If there was ever a Autobot he would never want to harm, Kleiner was the one. The little Autobot had somehow managed to squeeze himself into Blitzwing’s spark and had no intentions on leaving._

_Not that Blitzwing could ever bring himself to be rid of the Autobot. He’d grown too close and too attached to this wonderful mech. He never meet a bot who was so bright, confident, and brave despite his rough misfortunes. He may have a bad tendency to run his intake a bit, but the things he said were the most amusing and ridiculous things he had ever heard._

_He was wild and carefree, but his spark was always in the right place and his smile was brighter than the stars. His Kleiner._

_The mech who was always happy to see him._

_His Kleiner._

_The bot he could turn to and talk with when he felt no one else would listen to him._

_His… Hummel._

_The bot who told him crazy stories and did even crazier stunts that managed to pull a laugh out of him without even trying too hard to do so._

_His Hummel._

_The bot who accepted him, even after he became a triple changer, afraid that everything between them was gone only for the yellow mech to readily accept him and help him understand himself better._

_His Hummel._

_The mech who shared his own worries and fears when he felt down and sad, acting fine so not to bring down others with him but clung onto that hope because for the better things because… that who he was._

_Hummel._

_A wonderful mech with a wonderful personality who was endlessly loyal to his friends no matter who they were or how freaky they’ve become or changed. It didn’t matter if he tended to do things without thinking a bunch of times, he always meant well and tried to fix his mistakes he made. He became the only bot Blitzwing would die for, because he was his light, his happiness, his joy, his strength, his comfort, his inspiration, his wonder, his stability, his… his…_

_Hummel._

_Hummel._

_Hummel!_

**_Hummel!_ **

**_HUMMELCHEN!_ **

The darkness snapped away as Blitzwing tore himself out from under the mound of rock and dirt he was buried under. Renewed pain blossomed in his body as he slowly stood to his staggering stabilizers. His vision wasn’t better off, but he could see the beautiful colors of a sunset in the distance.

How long had he been out? He didn’t know. _He didn’t care._ He needed to be sure Hummel was safe.

_Hummel. Hummel. He needed to get to Hummel._

With great effort, Blitzwing began walking, or rather limping as his right stabilizer was unresponsive and dragged along the ground, leaving a deep groove as he went. Blitzwing didn’t care, he needed to get to his Hummel. To his family. That was all that mattered to him.

He didn’t know where he was heading as he walked. All he knew was that he needed to get to his Hummel and nothing else mattered. He didn’t care about the pain he was in, or his uneven walk, or the trees he leaned against when he lost balance, or the approaching sounds of a motorcycle siren.

He just wanted to be there for his Hummel and nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BLITZWING LIVES! I Promise I Didn't Kill Him Off! He lives! I swear! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME FOR DOING THIS!💔💔💔💔💔💔😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭


	24. Run-in Reunion (SwinLock)

_Radium, radium, radium, radium._

Swindle shoved goods aside, looking around for any spare radium metals laying around. He bit his lower lip, his tank pinching in pain as his glossa could almost taste the metal he was deeply craving for. The carving came out of nowhere while he was recharging and wouldn’t let him ignore it and rest.

_Radium, radium, radium, radium._

When it was clear there was no radium, Swindle punched the wall, growling. “Damn it!” He hissed, before bending over and groaning. This was _by far_ the worst craving Swindle ever had. And what was worse was that he craved for the metal _extremely_.

Swindle glanced at a piece of zinc laying the corner of his work table. Without thinking and pushing down his cravings, Swindle snatched it up and popped it into his intake. Five nanokliks later, he spat it out. And his craving came back ten times stronger than before.

Hugging himself, Swindle groaned. He needed radium. He needed it bad.

With a whimper, Swindle left the storage room. “Luck! We need to make a quick trip.” Swindle called out to his current bodyguard. He stopped short of the exit, waiting for the mech to show. He frowned as the nanokliks passed and Luck didn’t show up. “Luck!” He called again, frowning deeper when the bot still didn’t show up.

He didn’t linger to call out again as his craving made its demand for radium to the front of his mind. As much as Swindle felt safer with someone watching out for his back, the demands of his sparkling came first. So, exiting his ship, Swindle cursed as his body took a few tries to transformed and headed off to look for radium.

* * *

“Highstar. Master illusionist n’ mech of many talents. Ringleader of five different acts across the galaxy that specialize in entertainment.” Lockdown glared down at the dead mech. “Such a shame ya ticked off one too many bots in the underground.” With a swift kick to the helm, he turned and left the room.

Tracking the mech had been a pain. Either the bot knew he was being hunted, or he had the wackiest traveling map that went all over the place. Sure did give Lockdown a ton of slag trying to hunt him down. But in the end, he had managed to finally to catch up to the bot and do him in.

Was it worth it? _Slag no._ the mech didn’t have a single mod on him worth taking. Nor what he was paid to hunt down the bot. None of the stuff he was given as payment was worth it anymore. Most of it were just old weapons without value or worth to get his attention.

 _Swindle would probably have a few mods worth selling._ He though before remembering how that wasn’t possible anymore. Growling, he ducked into the shadows.

It was fragging _annoying_ no longer having connections to the arms dealer. Both for the fact that he could no longer see the smaller mech and the fact that no one else had the best weapons out there that were one of a kind. Despite his hefty prices, Swindle did have unique mods that were hard to come by normal means.

And honestly, despite the fact that he was a cheapskate, Swindle was a very unpersuasive in dropping his prices. Even to bots he’s done deals with plenty of times in the past with.

Unless said bot had been Lockdown, who knew all the right spots to convince the merchant to lower the price just for him.

Jumping to the rafts in the ceiling, the hunter quickly walked across the beam swift and silent. You would think a bot his size with many mods and upgrades inside him would be rather slow and heavy, making a bunch of noise as he went. That was a lie. He was a swift, silent hunter. With many stellar cycles of cyber-ninja training under his belt. Many had underestimated him the moment they saw him and that usually ended with him collecting a new hunting trophy to his collection.

_Swindle often had tried to swipe one of his trophies in their early meet ups when he thought Lockdown wasn’t looking. The dealer had a special talent knowing where a rare mod was no matter how well Lockdown hid them._

_It annoyed him._

_It angered him._

_It **irritated** him. _

_It impressed him to no end._

Lockdown shook his helm, jumping to another beam.

His attention was peaked when his receptors picked up voices. Not shrill screaming voices that belonged to a bot that had the hilarious misfortune to find Lockdown’s last hunt. But voices all taking at once coming from the same direction. Despite his better judgment, Lockdown headed towards the voices.

It didn’t come to him as a surprise to see so many bots in one area. This was a special underground black-market. Plenty of bots who wanted to stay under the radar came here for supplies. Most were wanted bots for serious crimes, but there were also some bots who were just trying to get away from their troubles.

_The first time he meet Swindle was when he failed to find any of the right supplies for his ship in a black-market and found the conmech ogling his ship outside. Of course he hadn’t been too happy about it and was going to offline the bot… until his saw those large purple cat-like optics. Those optics unique color really stunned Lockdown and he thought the irises were a mod… which he quickly learned not to ask about when Swindle clocked him in the jaw for it. He still has the chip in his denta from that incident, and a small respect for the mech after that moment._

Shaking his helm harder, Lockdown tried focusing on the bots below. Might as well see who’s here in case they were his next bounty. His optics trailed over bot after bot after bot after bot after bot after Swindle after b—

Lockdown’s optics snapped back. Down below, ducking and weaving between bots while simultaneously pick-pocketing them unsuspectingly, was undoubtedly the same gold and purple mech he hadn’t seen in four orbital cycle. Swindle.

* * *

Swindle happily hummed as he counted his new profits. His smile was wide as he left the underground building, happy with himself for a job certainly well done. With his tank satisfied, Swindle made his way back to the ship to finally get some rest.

 _It’s lucky we stayed on planet after all. Underground black-markets are usually spread out of far on different planets._ Swindle thought as he walked along, swinging his hip slightly with each step as he placed his ‘well earned’ currency away. “Haa. Nothing like a good shopping spree. Especially when it’s all free!” Swindle laughed hard that slowly turned into heavy coughing.

Doubling over, Swindle covered his intake with one servo as the other clutched his middle as he continued coughing harshly. _No no no **no!** Not again!_ Swindle thought as he was so down on one knee, trying to get his venting under control.

When he finally got it under control, he was too weak to stand back up. Inventing slowly, Swindle stayed there, hoping no one would see him like this. He had an image to maintain after all, and it wouldn’t be good for anyone if they saw him as weak and vulnerable.

Primus must have thought otherwise.

“Ya need help?” Swindle nearly jumped at the voice behind him. _Oh great, someone saw him._

“I’m fine. I’m…” Swindle tried thinking a good excuse. “… I’m just stretching my legs.” He felt a pointed stare on the back of his helm. Waving a servo, Swindle tried to stand. His body shook as he slowly rose, only for his knees to give out and pitch him forward. A strong arm wrapped around his middle, stopping him from falling forward, pulling him up and against a strong figure.

Heat rushed to Swindle’s cheeks. “… r-right, um.” He cleared his intake, reaching for the arm around his middle. “Thank you for the assistance, but I—” His optics widen.

He felt the arm around him carefully. It felt familiar. _Too_ familiar.

“Ya what?” A husky deep voice rumbled against his receptor as the other arm came into view. Swindle’s felt cold when he saw that energon covered hook. “Ya think you can jus’ walk off.” His helm shook as he slowly turned to look at the deviously grinning Lockdown. “Without sayin’ hi to yer old _pal?_ ”

Swindle almost screamed. In fact, he nearly did. But Lockdown covered his intake with his servo while pinning him against the hunter’s broad chest with his prosthetic arm. “ _Shh!_ ” Lockdown hissed in Swindle’s receptor. “Shhhh… you n’ me need ta have a quick chat. So there’s gonna be no screamin’ n’ runnin’… got it?”

Swindle knew he had no choice but to agree, so nodding his helm slowly, the pair began walking. Swindle tried to calm his rapidly beating spark, but Lockdown’s strong hold on him reminded the merchant who had the clear power here. And he knew it was pointless to fight someone with a clear power advantage over him.

And there was no point in trying to run. Lockdown was fast for a bot his size. _Stupid ninja skills._

 _There’s got to be a way out of this._ Swindle thought as he looked around for a solution. _Lockdown’s stronger and faster than me, so fighting him and running away are out of the question. Especially fighting. That bot can do serious damage._ He bit his lower lip, thinking about the sparkling still inside him and the damage Lockdown could do to it. _Maybe I can convince him to let me go with mods? That always worked in the past._

There were many times in the past Lockdown had been hired to hunt Swindle down, and while he was a little hurt that their stellar cycles of business together wouldn’t stop the hunter from bringing Swindle in, the offer of better mods and weapons always seemed to work getting him out of that trouble. And if he felt really nasty about it, he paid triple to the mercenary to get back at the bots trying to do him in. A little nasty message he liked to send to everyone to be sure they got the message clearly.

But would that work _now_ was the question. He had seen the news and read about the bots Lockdown had killed over the last four orbital cycles and the mods he had tossed aside. It wasn’t like the hunter to forgo any mods from his hunted victims, so it’s mostly a fifty-fifty chance if Swindle was desperate. But did he have any good mods on him that would suit Lockdown’s taste? Was he still into mods? Would he still take mods from him? Or would he just bat the item away if Swindle tried to bargen for his and his developing spark—

“Yer shakin’.” Swindle jumped a bit, glancing at Lockdown. His red optics were trained on Swindle. Narrowed, calculated and… conflicted? Well, that was odd. Swindle hardly ever saw Lockdown be unsure about anything. If anything, Lockdown could hardly care less about his emotions. “Why?” Lockdown removed his servo from Swindle’s intake, wanting to hear the merchant’s answer and far enough now that no one could hear Swindle screaming for help. Not that anyone could help him against _Lockdown_.

Swindle narrowed his optics, glaring at the hunter. “ _Gee._ I wonder why? It’s a mystery to wonder why a bot would be shaking in a _highly infamous dangerous bounty hunter’s_ hold, who not only has been _killing_ bots for over the past four orbital cycles, but made a _very clear threat_ that if he _ever_ saw me ever again he would rip me and my unemerged sparkling to pieces and stitch us back together into a horrid _amalgamation_ of a monster and leave us for dead on some barren planet where either my mashed up corpus will rust away into nothing or be found and put on some display in a **museum!** ” Swindle hissed, baring his denta at Lockdown. “ _Ring any bells?_ ”

Lockdown stared at him for a good solid cycle, his optics wide and unblinking. Swindle jerked his helm away. He didn’t want to keep looking at the fragger’s face. It was all his fault anyway. Lockdown got him sparked up in the first place and wouldn’t even listen to him when he tried to explain that it was his. It hadn’t been his intention to get sparked, and the fragger was all to blame with this—

“’M sorry.”

Swindle stopped in his tracks. His helm slowly turned to look at Lockdown with widening optics. Did… did he hear that right? Lockdown wasn’t looking at him, gazing off in the distance.

Swindle stared at him for a good long moment before shaking his helm. It was probably just the wind he thought, dismissing the fact that there wasn’t even a breeze around them. “ _Whatever._ ” The merchant huffed, glaring at the ground. “Just… just make it quick okay?”

“I ain’t gonna kill ya Swindle.” Lockdown growled, spinning the smaller mech around so they were looking at each other. “I told ya. You n’ me need ta have a chat.”

“About what?” Swindle glared up at the taller mech, pushing him away and tried not to find it odd that Lockdown let him. He probably figured that Swindle knew it was pointless to run. “What could _you_ possibly want from _me?_ Last I checked, you cut all our ties and wanted nothing to do with me!” Swindle crossed his arms over his chest, hugging it tightly as he glared at Lockdown. “I’m no longer obligated to give you anything.”

Lockdown shot his helm forward, glaring right at Swindle. Startled, the smaller mech took a step back, covering his chest. “Last I checked.” Lockdown growled lowly, his narrowed burning red optics burned into Swindle’s wide deep purple optics. “We had an agreement ‘bout yer berth habits.”

“W-what are you—”

Lockdown tapped his hook to Swindle’s hood. Swindle flinched, slapping the hook away and covered his chest protectively. Both bots stared at each other, one glaring and the other trying to keep his ground.

Swindle was the first to break away from their staring competition, frowning at the ground. “… I was trying to find a way to tell you.”

Lockdown snorted, standing up and crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, real smart ta have yer hood open when I walked back in the room. I got a _real_ good look at it. _Congratulations._ The sire mus’ be so _proud_ of himself.”

Those mocking words stung at Swindle’s spark, shrinking under Lockdown’s hard glare. Maybe he should have left the moment he could from Lockdown’s ship. Maybe he should have waited till he was safe in his own ship to check on the small spark inside him. Maybe then Lockdown wouldn’t have seen it and fly into a complete rage at Swindle’s surprise condition. Maybe then he could have hidden away and had their kid without Lockdown knowing and things would probably stay the same.

Maybe then he wouldn’t feel like horrible slag.

* * *

 _Great going **idiot**. You broke him._ Lockdown’s inner voice chastised him. Swindle was hardly even looking at him. The look of utter hurt on his face was… hurtful. He had expected to feel some sort of joy at verbally beating Swindle down for his two timing reveal, yet the way Swindle’s face fell with each hurtful word, Lockdown felt more and more like a jerk.

 _You just needed to ask who the sire was and be on your way. Yet you can’t even do that right!_ His mind screamed as he took a step closer. Swindle took two steps back, making Lockdown’s spark sink a little.

He took a moment to look at Swindle carefully and… he was not liking what he was seeing. Swindle, for once, look liked slag. His coloring was faded, his stabilizers were scratched up, his cheeks were slightly sunken in… he almost looked like he was going to go offline any second now…

Something tugged at his spark. _Why does he look like that? Shouldn’t the bot he’s been seeing behind my back be taking care of him?_ He looked Swindle up and down, frowning deeply. Swindle was always a bot who prioritized on looks. Even finding a single scratch on him set him off to a flying frenzy. And he had been unfortunate to be the cause of those frenzies more than once.

“Why do ya look like that?” Lockdown moved forward. Swindle moved back, but the hunter used his hook and looped it around the dealer’s neck, trying not to note how thin it had gotten.

“Look like _what?_ ” Swindle glared at him, his optics were a few shades paler than their normal color. His venting was also ragged and short. All of this wasn’t good to Lockdown’s view. “I look _fine_ thank you very much.”

“Fine? _Fine?_ Swindle have ya seen yerself in the mirror lately? Ya look like slag—”

“ _And why do you care how I look?!_ ” Swindle screamed at him, catching the hunter off-guard. “Why pretend to care how I look?! I’m _fine_! No thanks to you! So just bug off you walking _trash heap!_ ”

“Swindle!” Lockdown’s optics went wide, surprised at the sudden outburst. He had always knew the bot to be calm and collective and at worst rant loudly a little, but this was certainly out of character for him!

“You think it’s been easy for me, huh?! I’ve been having bad luck left and right after finding out I was sparked and let me tell you something! _It hasn’t been fun!_ I’ve been jumped on, _robbed_ , **_stolen from_** , failed deals, rechargeless nights, **burning** painful sensations in my tank, horrible pains in my processor, having the _worst_ cravings for strange metals and then hurling it back up like l-like… huff… l-like…” Swindle’s optics dimmed, pitching forwards.

Lockdown quickly caught the merchant, holding him close as he whizzed and coughed harshly. It lasted for a couple of cycles before Swindle managed to get it under control, venting inward and letting it out slowly as Lockdown rubbed his back.

“… why haven’t ya stick with the sire? Wouldn’t they be stickin’ out fer ya knowin’ yer carryin’ their kid?” Lockdown asked, wondering how bad Swindle’s health was if he was like this and how messed up the sire was for leaving him to fall into such bad health.

Swindle let out a breathless chuckle. “Stick out? For _me?_ Don’t make me laugh Lockdown…”

“Swindle, I’m _serious._ ” Lockdown moved his servo under Swindle’s chin, lifting his gaze so they were both looking at each other. He hated the dead look in Swindle’s optics. “Doesn’t the kid’s sire know what ya been through? Ain’t he worried for ya?”

“… why do you care?”

Lockdown frowned deeply. “Why wouldn’t I care?”

Swindle’s optics widen a bit, seemingly like he hadn’t expected that answer before narrowing a bit. “… don’t pretend to—”

“ _Oh for frag_.” Lockdown huffed, grabbing Swindle’s chin and locking their lips together. Swindle stiffened under his hold and he heard the arms dealer’s right servo transform into its hidden gun and expected to get blasted then and there. But as the nanokliks ticketed by and no shot rang out, he deepened the kiss. Gradually Swindle slowly went slack in his hold, his gun transforming back into a servo and touching Lockdown’s chest, deepening the kiss.

 _Slag._ He forgot how good of a kisser Swindle could be. His arms trailed down and wrapped around Swindle’s middle as Swindle’s arms slowly came up and wrapped around Lockdown’s neck.

Lockdown was still mad about the whole ‘ _sparked up by a different bot behind my back_ ’ thing, but when it came down to it, Swindle was still _his_. He just needed to remind Swindle of that after he dealt with the mysterious sire.

“Did you miss me?” Swindle whispered between soft pecks.

“ _Maybe._ ” Lockdown hummed deeply, shivering a bit as Swindle soft pecks trailed from the corner of his intake to his neck, leaving soft delicate touches on the hard metal. “Did _you_ miss _me?_ ”

“ _Yes._ ” Swindle vented a husky reply under Lockdown’s chin, making the hunter shiver against the warm hot air blown on his plating. “ _Yes._ So much.”

Lockdown growled with approval as Swindle kept kissing his neck, nuzzling the top of the merchant’s helm as his kisses tailed back up to his intake again, interlocking them together. His glossa licked the edges of Swindle’s lips, dragging inside the merchant’s intake and savoring the familiar taste of the mech.

Just as Lockdown was starting to get heat up and suggest they finish this on his ship, Swindle’s comm came to life and a voice screamed loud enough for Lockdown to overhear. [ _Swindle! Where the frag are you?!_ ] Swindle broke away from the kiss, blinking once at Lockdown before shaking his helm and turning away with a shaky award winning smirk.

“A-Ah! L-Luck! I was wondering where you’ve gone t—”

[ _Where_ I’ve _gone to?! Mech, I’ve only been gone a moment and come back to find you gone! Where are you?!_ ]

Swindle’s smirk went away into a frown, sighing a bit. “I’m not far from the ship. I just…” He paused and looked at Lockdown. “… needed some fresh air.”

[ _Why didn’t you wait for me then?! And where are you?!_ ]

“I’m heading back to the ship right now.” Swindle sighed. “I’ll be there in a few cycles.” With that he shut off his comm-link, sighing heavily while pinching between his optics.

“… who’s… Luck?”

“A bodyguard I hired about an orbital cycle back.” Swindle sighed, moving out of Lockdown’s arms.

“A _bodyguard?_ I thought ya a had a thin’ against those. Considerin’ what happened to the last pair ya had.”

Swindle frowned at him. “ _One_ , I didn’t think it was such a bad idea at the time. Two, **_never_** use Starscream CNA for cloning. Otherwise you might end up with the most _awful_ personality to put up with.”

Lockdown snorted with a smirk on his faceplate. “ _I’ll_ say. I still remembered how ya begged me ta get rid of ‘em.”

“Of course I did!” Swindle turned on his heels and started walking. “They were the most _annoying_ , _awful_ , _worst_ bodyguards a bot could ever had! I mean, did it _have_ to be _envy_ and _greed?!_ Why couldn’t it have been _modesty_ or a suck-up flattery one?! Those would have been so much better!”

Lockdown couldn’t help it, but he laughed as he followed Swindle. “Well I guess that the universe just wanted to throw ya a wrench in yer plans Swin.”

“ _Excuse you_ , I didn’t know I would get some fragging awful Seekers!”

Lockdown roared with laughter. That solar cycle had been too funny to forget, one of many he loved to hold over Swindle when they got together. While Swindle didn’t like to be reminded of his two failed bodyguards, he never did stop Lockdown from bringing them up.

“Still.” Lockdown huffed as he calmed down. “I thought ya would learn yer lesson n’ never get bodyguards every again.”

Swindle looked back his with a smile. “Well, yeah. But only for self-made bodyguards. Luck is… different.” Swindle lifted a servo, holding up a digit as he spoke. “He’s reliable, efficient, watchful, and—”

“Rude, sloppy, n’ poor optics.”

The pair stopped. Swindle looked back at Lockdown with a raised optic ridge. “Hey. You haven’t met the bot yet. You can’t ju—”

“Swindle, jus’ by lookin’ at ya I can tell he’s not a good bodyguard.” Lockdown narrowed his optics, lifting his servo. “If he was a good bodyguard as ya say he is, he would have done the right thin’ n’ stuck with ya at all times. Keepin’ an optic on ya n’ bein’ right there when ya need him. Not lashing out at ya over the comm-link like a bad ex-mechfriend n’ rush to yer side ta make sure yer okay. N’.” Lockdown reached inside his compartment, pulling out a small jewel encrusted highly detailed servo sized mirror (one of many Swindle had left behind on his ship by accident more than once) and handed it to Swindle. “He would have noticed n’ mentioned ‘bout the bad health yer obviously in.”

Swindle’s optics widened as he stared himself in the mirror, seeing the condition he was in for possibly the first time. His intake opened and closed with no words coming out of it.

Lockdown left Swindle to stare at himself in the mirror. He needed to see this so called _bodyguard_ for himself.

* * *

 _How did I not notice this?!_ Swindle’s mind screamed as he stared himself in the mirror. Lockdown was right. He _did_ look like slag! His bright healthy colors were gone and dulled, his faceplate looked sunken in, and his optics. Sweet Primus his _optics_. They had turned into a dull purple color that almost fooled Swindle into thinking he was _blind!_

Well, maybe he was blind for not seeing this sooner. Why hadn’t he noticed before now?! His looks, they were all ruined! How was he supposed to make a sale looking like _this?!_

He could practically hear all his profits fleeing him in his receptors.

“This is going to take _ages_ to fix.” Swindle bemoaned, wondering how long he had been like this and how much it was going to fix everything. His spark froze.

_His sparkling._

Opening his chest, Swindle almost screamed. His spark was the same color as his optics, but his focus was on the small little spark, wobbly shaking inside with a sickly color of brown instead of the bright scarlet color. The mirror fell out of his hold, shattering to the ground as Swindle fell to his knees in mute horror.

Coolant pricked at the corners of his optics. His sparkling. His poor child. How could he have been so ignorant of his health that it affected his kid so harshly?!

A pitiful whimper left his intake as he hugged himself, apologizing to his unemerged child over and over as coolant poured down his optics. He gasped as he was suddenly lifted up into a bridal style hold in a strong pair of arms, hugged closely to a broad green chest. Swindle’s optics looked up at Lockdown, finding the bounty hunter’s face in full fury. “L-Lockdown?”

“ _You._ Are comin’. With _me_.” Lockdown growled, pressing Swindle close to him as he stomped towards the path to his ship.

“Wh-what? Why?”

Lockdown cast a quick glance at him, a quick nanoklik before looking away. “Yer sick Swin. _Bad._ Ya need to get to a med station. _Now._ ”

Swindle felt a pit forming in his tank, not liking what Lockdown was implying. “W-well, okay. But I need to tell Luck f—”

“ ** _No._** ” The deep growl froze Swindle, staring up at Lockdown as his red optic narrow into dangerous slits. “ **That _bot_ has done enough damage.**”

Swindle stared up at him, confused and a little worried. “… he’s my bodyguard.”

“He **_ain’t_** no _bodyguard._ ” Lockdown hissed, pressing Swindle close as he practically ran for his ship. “He ain’t nothing but a _coward._ ”


	25. Shockrr's Secret Datapad Adventures Part 1 (ShockBlurr)

_Der Secrt Logpad,_

_Today was col! Sir had a fre tim from his borring dumb work an wantted two spend tim with me! He sad that sins he had the hole sollar sycle off hed teach me hoow two us a blaster! isnt that col! i sur thot so!_

_We wen two this HUUUUUUUUG roc. Sir caled it an astroed an get ths sins no other bots wer rond sir trnd into his othr from! Supr col! i dont undrstnd y he dosnt shoo his othr from two othr bots. Carier says that othr bots woldnt lik sir if thy saw his othr from wich is totale not tru! Sir is gret! Both ov his froms r col! Y wold no one lik him in his othr from._

_N e way sir sad that i nedd popr tranng if i wnt two b a goood fittr. But im alrede a goood fittr! i cn tak don sir in a fit no probelm! Carier two! But sir sad im not alowd two tho. Wel n e way her we r on ths HUUUUUUUUUUG roc. Sir told me two go runin a round wile he set up somthin wick i didnt car abot sins i got two run a round! It wuz supr fun! The onll problm wit it was that carier wasnt thr with me we cold hav had a race! i lov racin wit carier!_

_N e way sir was son don nd i got two hold my rel frst gun!_

_i didnt get two sot it tho. Sir was gong two sow me how but carier fond us nd start frekng out. He and sir yeled at eck othr four a loooooooooooong tim so i decidd two shot the gun witout sir. i hit sir in the aft! It was supr fune! He scremd lik a fem wen it hit him._

_Nd no im gronded! But i stil had fun!_

_Shocrr!_

* * *

Blurr had a deadpanned look on his faceplate, trying to make heads and tales of the datapad Shockrr had shoved into his servos, saying it was a secret before running back to his room. If his kid chose a path of a spy like his creators, Blurr had high doubts things would go well at this rate.

A groan caught his attention. Frowning, Blurr glared a little as he turned his helm to look at Shockwave. The Con was laid flat out on the couch, back covered in bandages. “You/just/had/to/try/and/teach/him/how/to/handle/weapons/behind/my/back/didn’t/you?”

The Decepticon lifted his helm a bit, meet Blurr’s glare with equal force. “I didn’t mean any harm out of it love.”

“No/harm/my/aft/or/well/your/aft.” Blurr sighed. “I/thought/we/agreed/to/wait/till/Shockrr/was/fifty/stellar/cycles/old/before/trying/to/train/him/to/use/weapons/and/yet/you/snuck/our/little/bitlet/out/and/gave/him/a/ _gun_ /which/I/might/add/I/wouldn’t/have/minded/so/much/if/it/had/been/a/fake/gun/or/maybe/I/don’t/know/an/ _empty_ / _gun_ /instead/of/a/real/loaded/gun!/And/don’t/use/that/excuse/of/Decepticon/training/we’re/not/on/Kaon!”

Shockwave grunted, laying his helm back down. “… I’ll admit, that wasn’t a smart move on my end.”

“ _You/think?_ ” 

Shockwave sighed, covering his helm with one arm. “Okay. A _terrible_ idea.”

“ _Very_.”

Shockwave sighed deeply. He had a feeling Blurr would never let him forget this for the rest of his life cycle. No matter how much he apologized for it.


	26. Decepticon in the Base (BlitzBee)

Darkness.

That was all Blitzwing was aware.

Darkness. And pain.

Vaguely he could feel movement around him and faintly hear muffled sounds, but he could focus on them too much as pain and numbness overpowered his other senses.

He faded in between the lines of conscious and unconsciousness, drifting from one side to the other, but never staying on one.

It felt like eons before something finally happened, and Blitzwing opened his optic to dark room. A smooth stone ceiling was high above him and he knew he wasn’t in the caves or buried under piles of rock.

Confusion rocked in his processor as he stared up at the ceiling before becoming aware of hushed voices to his left reaching his audibles.

“—n’ damn fraggin’ lucky for his thick platin’ too. It took most of the damage that saved most of his inner workings from a bad beat down.”

“So… he’ll live?”

“Unfortunately yes. He’ll live. Honestly Prime, I don’t understand why you’re makin’ me help Blitzwing of all bots. This Con caused us a lot of trouble in the past, n’ it’d be easier if we had one less Decepticon to fight.”

Blitzwing pulled a face inside his helm. _Autobots._ Of course. It just had to be _Autobots_. What _luck_ he was in.

“As much as I would like to agree with you Ratchet, it wouldn’t feel right to let Blitzwing die.”

“Humph. Yer only saying that because Bumblebee wouldn’t calm down when he saw the news of Megatron beatin’ the slag out of him.”

A cold chill went through Blitzwing. _Bumblebee_.

 _His Hummel_.

“It doesn’t matter! Look, as much as Blitzwing has given us trouble in the past, letting him go offline wouldn’t be the right thing to do.”

“Offline? _Hardly._ This Con has a stubborn spark in him that refuses to die n’ a body to boot with it, kid. Broken n’ unable to do much in this state is more like it. N’ jus’ be glad he’s out cold, or otherwise we would have an unhinged Decepticon rampagin' ‘round the base.”

 _Well aren’t you just wonderful._ Blitzwing thought bitterly, wishing they would go back to talking about Hummel.

“… Are you sure he’s going to be out for a while?”

“Been out of a couple of solar cycles now. Probably will stay out for another or two before wakin’ up.”

“And what about stasis cuffs? Why haven’t you put one on him yet?”

Blitzwing’s optic widened, casting a quick gaze down at his servos. His wrists were indeed free of any stasis cuffs. The corner of his intake twitched at the Autobots stupidity.

“Kid believe me, I want to have that bot in cuffs, but stasis cuffs only hindered Blitzwing’s movements n’ I needed to fix a lot of the damage done to him. Bot was a hassle to move when he was all stiff, n’ a lot bigger than an Autobot, so he was pretty hard to move, even with Bulkhead’s help.”

 _If you all weren’t so tiny, maybe you wouldn’t have needed help._ Blitzwing was really getting tired of hearing these Autobots talk about him. He was itching to get up and demand about Hummel.

“Fortunately, I was able to disarm Blitzwing’s cannons and his weapons system. So even if he did wake up, he won’t have any firepower on him.”

_… Please tell me you didn’t just say what I think I heard you just say._

“Well that’s some comfort.” Blitzwing heard the Prime sigh and footfalls moving away from him. “I still want him in stasis cuffs when you’re done with repairs.”

“I’ll be finished by tomorrow Prime. Jus’ need a few touches done on his back n’ the wing… is the kid gonna come out of his room yet?”

“He’s still won’t open the door after seeing the state Blitzwing was in.”

“N’ that’s why I told ya to keep the kid away! His emotions are runnin’ high n’ seeing Blitzwing like that could have put the kid in shock or lose the spark in him!”

“I know! I know! I tired but he rushed past me, I wasn’t fast enough to grab him.”

The voices soon died away with a heavy thud of metal and quiet whirring of machinery before everything went quiet, leaving Blitzwing alone in the darkness. He stayed still, waiting for any signs of the pair coming back. About forty cycles passed before Blitzwing was sure he was alone and could move freely.

Shifting, Blitzwing groaned as he stretched his body, lifting his arms up and moving stiff cables. Taking a look at himself, Blitzwing could see patches and weld works on littering his body. Nearly every damage was fixed or repaired.

It was certainly much better work than the little human pet Megatron kept.

Rolling his shoulders, Blitzwing gazed around the room his was in. It was mostly empty, save for a few stone columns keeping the ceiling up and metal junk lying around. Blitzwing checked his systems and was very displeased to see that all his weapon systems had indeed been disabled.

Sighing, Blitzwing moved to stand, only coming up into a crouch before the top of his helm hit the ceiling. Growling, Blitzwing glared at the ceiling rubbing his sore helm. Seems he was still tender on that spot. Feeling cramped, Blitzwing decided it was time to leave and began looking for an exit.

It took a bit of maneuvering, and a lot of irritating crawling, but Blitzwing finally managed to find an exit big enough for him to get through. A metal door blocked his path, but with ease, Blitzwing used his strength to break and lift the door up.

Stars greeted him as Blitzwing stepped outside, finally being able to stand up fully and look around. He was just outside a warehouse factory, in a familiar city. _Back in Detroit hmm?_ The triple changer looked around, frowning a bit.

He could detected Autobot energy signatures nearby, identifying the leader, medic, wrecker, ninja, and—

_Hummel._

Blitzwing looked back at the warehouse. His spark raced as he felt the familiar signature of his sweet spark coming from inside the building. His sweet Hummel.

With no time, the triple changer began walking, moving around the building till finding the entrance and, being as quiet as he could be, opened it. The inside was much more spacious than it was down below, though Blitzwing still had to crouch down to get in through the door.

 _Not a bad place they got here._ Blitzwing thought as he gazed around the area. The area looked more like a living area than a military stand point, with a large TV, seating areas, and odd items piled up to one side of the room with some cans of paint. It wasn’t much, but it was certainly much homier than the caves he had been staying in under.

Ignoring it for now, Blitzwing began following his Hummel’s energy signature. It led down a hallway, past a couple of rooms that were closed off or empty before finally coming to a stop at one where Hummel’s signature was coming from.

Blitzwing stared at the door. He wanted to open it, tear it off its hinges and finally see his sweet Hummel again, but held back, feeling nervous and unsure. He had spent a whole orbital cycle without seeing his Hummel, longing and worrying how he and their sparkling were doing, resisting the urge to break down the Autobot’s base and take back his sweet Hummel just so he could be sure they were both safe. But standing in front of the door, the last obstacle separating him from Hummel, and overwhelming feeling of nervousness came down on him.

How had Hummel been since they last saw each other? Had he been thinking about him? How was the sparkling doing? Were they alright? Was Hummel alright? Were they both alright?

Millions of questions swarmed through Blitzwing’s helm. How would Hummel react seeing him again? Would he be happy? Angry? Distressed? Should he leave? Blitzwing shook his helm, venting a bit before deciding to act before he changed his mind.

Being quiet as possible, Blitzwing eased his digits under the door. He frowned a bit when the door barely lifted up, just enough to dig his digits underneath. Feeling around, Blitzwing smirked when his digits brushed against what he assumed was a lock. It was a bit of a struggle, but he managed to grab the lock in two of his digits, squeezing the metal slowly till it gave under his strength. With a few tugs, the lock gave way.

Inventing slowly, Blitzwing braced himself as he opened the door.

The room was a mess. There were empty oil cans littering the floor _(a few with bite marks in them_ ) _,_ shelves filled with knick knacks and little sculptures he had made ( _he remembered Hummel telling him how only a few of his gifts survived the crash, yet it warmed his spark just knowing his Hummel kept all his gifts he gave him_ ) _,_ odds and ends of items shoved in one corner of the room with posters tapped to the wall. He recognized a few of them of a band Hummel talked about a few times.

But his focus so turned to the sole resident of the room. The same someone he had missed and longed for.

Hummel.

Blitzwing’s venting hitched, spotting his Hummel laying there on the berth on the right side of the room under a small window that let in soft moonlight. The bot was laid out on his side, back pressed against the wall with a small pile of pillows under his helm with one servo clutching them tightly, covered by a soft blanket that covered his from shoulder struts to the ends of his peds. His face was mostly hidden by the pillows and servo, but Blitzwing could see the barest hints of his face sticking out in the dark.

The triple changer lost control of his stabilizers, moving forward without thinking or meaning to. In four large steps, he was soon kneeling beside the berth, servos hovering over the bot that captivated his spark.

“Hummel…” Blitzwing’s voice was barely above a whisper, conflicted if he should wake his little lover or let him recharge. His optic trailed up and down the yellow bot, hoping to find nothing wrong or amiss. When he looked back at the smaller bot’s face, his spark twisted with pain, having a closer look now at his faceplate. Hummel’s face was scrunched up and covered in coolant tracks, both dry and wet, seemingly from crying for who knows how long. Blitzwing felt physically hurt seeing his Hummel so sad, reaching a servo towards his face, wanting to wipe away those tears. “Hummel—”

**_Clack._ **

The large bot jumped a bit, retracting his servo and leaning back in surprise.

“ _Back off!_ ”

His optic shifted from his Hummel’s face to the small organic jumping out from beneath the blanket, glaring at him while holding a stick, wielding it like a weapon that could hurt him.

“I’m warning you!” The small organic pointed the stick at him. “If you lay even one finger on my friend, I’ll let you have it!”

Blitzwing blinked, staring at this tiny organic ( _Sari, Dummkopf. Hummel told you a million times to stop calling her that_ ) who stood protectively beside his Hummel.

It was quite a funny sight to the large bot.

“Oooh?” Blitzwing grinned, showing all his jagged denta, leaning closer to the org— _Sari_. “And just vhat do jou plan to do _hmm_?”

Sari glared harder at him, swinging her arms back and swung with all her might. Blitzwing almost burst out laughing when the stick hit his faceplate, only to bounce off with no real damaged done. The girl stumbled a bit, quickly regaining balance and tried swinging at him again. Blitzwing merely grabbed the stick, yanking it easily out of the or— ** _Sari’s_** grip and popped it in his intake, grinding it into bits.

“Not bad.” Blitzwing hummed, licking his long glossa over his denta. “Could use zome zalt zough.”

“Hey! That was my best hockey stick!”

Blitzwing giggled. “And now it’s in my tank in bits and pieces! AHAHAHA!”

The girl glared harder at him, puffing her cheeks out. “You’re horrible! I don’t understand how Bee could like someone like _you_.”

Blitzwing’s grin fell away to a frown. “I’m not _zat_ bad.”

“Yes you are!”

“Are not.”

“Are too!”

“Are not.”

“Are too!”

“Are not!”

“Are too!”

“ _Are not!_ ”

“ _Are too!_ ”

“ ** _Are—_** ”

“Blitzwing?”

The triple changer froze. His focus turned away from the small human to the big bright blue optics gazing at him.

“… Hummel.”

Bumblebee sat up slowly, keeping his optics locked on Blitzwing. “… Blitz.”

Blitzwing’s intake slowly formed into a smile, reaching a servo out. “Hum—”

**_Slap!_ **

Blitzwing let out a small yelp, holding his cheek and staring at his Hummel in shock. “… did… did jou just zlap me?!”

“Uh, _duh_.” Bumblebee glared at him with his servos on his hips. “Do you have any idea what you put me through over the last couple of solar cycles?! I thought you almost died on me!”

Blitzwing flinched. “H-Hummel.”

“Don’t Hummel me! What were you thinking?! Fighting Megatron?! Of all bots!”

“Vait. How did—”

“It was on the news. A pair of hikers saw you two and recorded the whole thing.”

“Zee vole zing?”

“Enough to see the slag get beaten out of you!” Bee threw his arms up. “What were you thinking?! You’ve told me multiple times how you can’t match up to Megatron in a fight and yet I find out that you took him head on and almost get killed by him! Why didn’t you run?! Why didn’t you try getting away from him?! You could have been offlined by that bot!”

Anger was bubbling in Blitzwing, pounding the ground with one servo. “Jou Zink I Didn’t Try?! Zat Bot Vas Chasing Me For Two Vole Zolar Cycles Before He Finally Caught Up To Me!”

“Then why didn’t you hide then?!”

“Jou Zink I Vould Hide Like Zome Zparkling Vimp?!”

“It would be better than being _DEAD!_ ”

“I Vould Rather Go Offline Zan Be Zeen As A Veakling!”

“But you would still be alive!”

“Zo?! I Ztill Vould Have Look Like Vimp!”

“But you wouldn’t have gotten hurt! Or had the slag beat out of you!”

“I Put Up A Good Fight!”

“And nearly got killed!”

“But I Didn’t!”

“You could have!”

“Vell I Didn’t! Zo Ztop Zcreaming At Me Like I did!”

“You almost _did_ you idiot!”

“Dummkopf!”

“Blitzbrain!”

“Puny Autobot!”

“Aft head!”

“Vimpy Malfunction!”

“Slagging Con!”

“Rust Zpot!”

“Flying circus!”

“BA!”

“Ba!”

Both Blitzwing and Bumblebee threw their servos up, crossing their arms over their chests and looking away from each other with an angry huff.

He knew he shouldn’t be mad at his Hummel, but the tiny bot could be so infuriating at times that he would press the wrong buttons or say the wrong thing that would rile the big bot up to the point of exploding. The first time that happened, his anger had not been the best and he yelled at the minibot, saying things he shouldn’t have and then left. When they met up again, the little bot had been silent the whole time Blitzwing was there and nothing the bigger bot did got him to speak. He had been silent for five visits till Blitzwing finally apologized and everything was back to normal the next visit.

After that, they both were mindful of what to say or do around each other, but they still slipped up now and then. Hence why they yelled at each other when they met up again after so long.

“I though you _died_ Blitz.” Bulitzwing heard Hummel murmur, turning his helm a little to look at him. “I saw everything and… and I thought I saw you go offline right there on the screen a-and I just…” Hummel turned his helm, letting Blitzwing see his optics. “… I thought I _lost_ you.”

The triple changer could see the raw emotion in his optics. Sadness, worry, fear, anger… all mixed up inside those pretty blue optics he had fallen in love with.

“… he zreatened jou.” Blitzwing muttered, turning his helm away. “He cornered me, pinned me to zee ground. I vas to zcared to move or doing anything.” He bared his denta, gritting them. “And zen he mocked jou, he _zreatened jou_. He zreatend to harm jou after he vas zrew vith me and—” Blitzwing’s servos clenched, body shaking as he remembered those dark, menacing, mocking words Megatron said. “… I couldn't let him do zat.”

“… you still could have gotten killed.”

“I vould have died knowing I protected jou.” Blitzwing countered, his anger cooling away.

“Wait, so.” Blitzwing turned his optic on the little human. “Megatron knows?”

“Unfortunately.” Blitzwing sighed. “He zaw everything on my datapad. He knows about my relationship vith Hummel.” He looked up to meet Hummel’s worried gaze. “And zee zparkling.”

Bee’s invent hitched, placing a servo on his chest. The human looked between them, her face growing with horror as it dawned on her. “Wait! Megatron knows about the sparkling too?!”

“I Just Zaid Zo Didn’t I?! Damn Megatron Took My Datapad And Zaw Everything On It!”

Bee invented again, wrapping his arms around his chest. Blitzwing frowned, shifting closer and pulling his mechfriend in an awkward side hug.

“It’s okay Hummel. I’ll keep jou zafe. Jou and our zparkling.” He whispered, rubbing Bee’s back as his venting became normal, moving closer to Blitzwing.

“H-he knows.”

“Ja.”

“He knows about the sparkling.”

“I’ll kill him before he can even touch jou.”

Bee let out a breathless chuckle. “You got the _slag_ beat out of you Blitz.”

“ _Ja._ But I ztill managed to hurt him too! Bit his neck cables right out from under his helm!”

“Wait.” Bumblebee pulled back a bit, looking at Blitzwing in a bit of surprise. “You _bit_ off his neck cables?”

“Yep! I even have zee missing denta to prove it!” Blitzwing pointed to hole where a sharp pointed denta used to be, letting his glossa roll out of the hole and hang there. “It’s nice and breezy now! AHAHAHAHA!”

Sari looked at him with one optic closed. “Okay. I’m still trying to understand how my best friend was dating a Decepticon this whole time an—”

“Ex.”

Both occupants looked at Blitzwing. “ _Ex_ -Decepticon.” He used his free servo to point at his chest where a Decepticon symbol once was, but only broken glass remained. “As of zee time Megatron found out about my zecret, I am no longer loyal to zee Decepticon faction.”

A bright smile was on Hummel’s face.

“Okay, so ex-Con. It still doesn’t changed the fact that Bee was seeing you behind everyone’s backs.”

“Vell, _DUH!_ Do jou zink bots vould take lightly finding out zat enemies vere buddy buddy vith each other? It’s not zomething to be taken lightly.”

“I… guess that would make sense? But if you’re dating Bee, why did you attack us all those times?”

“Because I had no choise. It vould have looked zuspicious if I didn’t go along with Megatron's plans and vould have eventually found out.” He looked at the little human with a raised optic ridge. “Any other questions jou vant to pester me vith?”

She glared at him a bit before her face broke out into a smile. “Actually, yes. I’ve got plenty of them.”

Blitzwing sighed a bit, getting comfortable as best he could. “Zen ask away.”

* * *

Bumblebee was beyond happy.

Blitzwing was awake, talking and moving again instead of being a still wrecked mess. He was still covered in a bit of damage, but Ratchet had taken care the more major wounds first, so Blitzwing was safe from going offline.

It had scared Bee seeing Blitzwing like that. All broken and torn and bleeding out energon heavily. For Primus sake he was missing most of his right wing! And no matter how much Bumblebee had screamed and slapped Blitzwing’s face, the bot had remained still and silent.

But now, he was awake. Awake and alive and talking and being good old Blitzwing.

A smile was on Bee’s face as he watched Sari interrogate Blitzwing with fifty questions. So far her questions had been pretty basic, like how long have you guys known each other, or when did you guys start dating, and how did you guys become friends and how many times did you guys kiss. Just the small things before moving on more serious questions that really made Blitzwing think about his answers.

“ _No_ , I haven’t ever eaten other bots.”

“Are you sure?”

“ _Ja_.” Blitzwing huffed.

“But are you certain?”

Blitzwing gave Bumblebee a pleading look, already seemingly reaching the end of his limit. “Come on Sari, give Blitz a break.” Bumblebee tapped her shoulder, breaking her interrogation session. “Besides, Blitzwing’s got a sensitive tank. There’s no way Blitz could eat a whole bot.”

 _Whirr_. “Oi! I Don’t Have A _Zensitive_ Tank.” Blitzwing huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I Just Don’t Like Ingesting Certain Quantities Of Metal.”

Sari giggled a bit. “Okay, okay. Next question.”

 _Whirr_. “Didn’t ve already pass fifty already? Can’t ve take a break first?”

“Actually she only asked you forty six Blitz.” Bee remarked. “But yeah, we can take a break. I’m kinda getting tired.”

“What?” Sari looked at him, gasping a little. “Bee! You look horrible!”

“Gee, that’s a nice compliment.” Bumblebee joked as Sari crawled over to his faceplate and grabbed it.

“It’s not.” She puffed out her cheeks, looking at him carefully. “You’re starting to look like Ratchet.”

“What?!” Bumblebee patted his face, looking at Blitzwing. “Do I?”

 _Whirr._ “ _Veeeeeellll_ , jou certainly got dark bags under jour optics. Now all jou need is a broken horn and a grumpy personality! AHAHAHAHA!”

“Frag off Blitz.” Bee sighed, hitting his helm against the pillows.

“Just like zat Hummel! Jou’re already halfway zere!”

Bumblebee rolled his optics but couldn’t help the smile on his faceplate. It was so nice to hear Blitzwing’s laugh again.

“Bee, you need to rest. Ratchet says you need to rest as much as you can.” Sari said before a yawn escaped her.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who needs rest.” Bumblebee chuckled.

 _Whirr_. “Jou zhould listen to jour friend Hummel. If jou need to recharge, zen by all means rest.”

“Fine.” Bee smiled a bit, wrapping his arm around Sari and bringing her into a hug. “And you need to rest too.”

“But I’m not tired.” Sari protested, yet Bee could see she was fighting off sleep badly, eyes drooping heavily. “I have to make sure you protected. A-and nothing—”

“Sari, I’ll be fine.” Bee hugged her gently. “You just get some rest okay? I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“… promise?”

“Promise.”

Sari stared at him for a moment before smiling. “Okay. But you better be here when I wake up!”

Bee chuckled a bit as Sari slowly went to sleep, curling up next to him and was soon out cold. “Night Sari.” Bee whispered, rubbing her back gently.

“… I zee vhy jou two get along zo vell.” Bumblebee looked up to Blitzwing, smiling at his mechfriend.

“Oh yeah?”

“Ja. Jou’re both fiery zpirited, and fully of vild energy.” The ex-Con leaned over a bit, examining Sari as she slept. “I’m actually quite zurprised zhe acted zo calm around me. I vas zure zhe vould have zcreamed for help or fought back harder.”

“Eh.” Bumblebee shrugged, playing with Sari’s pigtails a bit. “Bulkhead kinda informed her about us. She kind of didn’t take it too well at first, but he managed to calm her down in the end.” He stared at Blitzwing for a moment. “… are you… really not part of the Decepticons anymore?”

Blitzwing snorted, tapping his chest. “Do jou see a Con zymbol on me?”

Bee smiled, shaking his helm as Blitzwing leaned down and planted a quick kiss on his helm. “So, what are you going to do now that you’re not a Con?”

Blitzwing sat back, smiling at Bee. “I zought zat vould be obvious to jou, Hummel.” Bee looked at him confused. “I’m ztaying vith jou.”

The scout blinked. “… you’re joining the Autobots?”

Blitzwing shook his helm. “Nein. I can’t. It feels too zudden for me to be zwitching zides and it vould… complicate zings on jour team Hummel. And don’t deny it. Ve both know how jour medic feels about me.”

Bee shut his intake. “… so, you’re going neutral? Are you going to go on the run?”

Blitzwing looked at him oddly. “Leave? Vhy vhould I leave? I told jou Hummel, I’m ztaying vith jou. I von’t join zee Autobots, but I am zticking by jour zide.” He reached a servo out, cupping it over Bubmlebee’s chest. “I made a promise to jou, both of jou, and I intend to keep it.”

Bumblebee smiled, reaching a servo out and grabbing one of Blitzwing’s digits, rubbing it with his thumb. “… hey, Blitz?”

“Ja Hummel?”

He squeezed the digit, smiling up at Blitzwing. “It’s a femm. I won the bet.”

Blitzwing stared at him with a wide optic, his intake hanging open. Slowly the corners of his intake curled upward, and Blitzwing chuckled, his body shaking in happy mirth as he leaned down and gave Bee a quick kiss on the lips. “J-Ja. Zo jou have liebe. Zo jou have.”

* * *

“I still don’t like this.”

“Ratchet, _shush_.”

Ratchet huffed as Optimus slowly closed the door to Bumblebee’s room, leaving Sari, Bee, and Blitzwing to get their rest. “I don’t trust a word that Con says. Once a Con, _always_ a Con.”

“As much as I want to agree with you Ratchet, we can’t just jump to conclusions or rush in without thinking it through first.” Optimus gazed at the door a bit before turning to look at Ratchet. “Blitzwing didn’t seem to be lying.”

“Jus’ because he didn’t seem to be lyin’ don’t mean he isn’t.”

“Never the less.” Optimus glanced at the door again. “It’s best we keep an optic on him just in case. We already have enough faction-less bots wandering around, and I don’t want a triple changer to be one of them.”

“Hnnnn… Fine.” Ratchet sighed. “I guess he can stay. But he’s stayin’ _under_ the base! I ain’t trustin’ that bot on his own less he has some stasis cuffs on him.”

“You were the one who didn’t put them on him the first place though.” Optimus pointed out.

“N’ I regret it.” Ratchet huffed, turning and heading off for the medbay, leaving Optimus standing there.

The Prime stared at the door for a while, wondering if he was making the right choice.


	27. Ludicrous the Assassin (SwinLock)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Descriptions of violence and death in this chapter. Read with caution.

_The world of bounty hunters was a world of danger and thrill._

_Bounty hunted became a profession when the Great War happened and many bots who were faction-less or had no real loyalties to either faction. Having no true ties to either faction had many bots wondering around without any ties or way to gain support for themselves, until Decepticons started paying faction-less bots to be spies or hunters to bring in information or capture bots to do in if they felt they were a threat to the war on their side. It wasn’t long before Autobots caught wind of bounty hunters, and starting paying them as well to capture Decepticon’s to weaken their ranks._

_Many faction-less bots were killed and offlined doing this dangerous work, but a few of them had gone beyond and above to being the best, with one name in particular who stood over every other hunter out there. His original designation was a mystery, but bots called him Lockdown. The top bounty hunter that ever lived during the Great War._

_He was a big name at the time who had everything that bounty hunters could ever ask for whenever the slightest mention of their designation was whispered. Honor, respect, and fear. And Lockdown was all about being the bot who brought fear to anyone who knew him well enough._

_Decepticon’s paid him hefty sums to bring down plenty of bots and steal important items from the Autobots. As long as he was paid, he got the job done._

_But as time went on and the war came to a close, bounty hunting became less and less of a profitable thing it had been in the past. Newbies who tried their try at it were often quickly put out or put down permanently while big top bots tried keeping their ranks and game alive, hunting bounties and sometimes even other bounty hunters to knock down the competition. Some had teamed up while plenty had gone solo to keep their own skid plate safe._

_Lockdown still held the top spot, being the bot most others paid to get the job done right. Not many were willing to go against him and expect to live without permanent damage done to their frame and a couple of mods stolen as well._

_But today was going to be different._

_Stepping into an old hidden bar never felt so exhilarating to him. Each step he took felt like he was on a high road, primed and ready to take on anything and anyone. The deeper down he went, his spark thumbed with thrill, speeding up till it was basically pounding hard against his chest plate._

_Shoving past the double doors, he took a moment to observe the room._

_In one word to describe the place, he would use filthy. The air was thick with heavy dust and smoke, bots running this place had long since stopping trying to clear the air as customers kept smoking, leaving it thick with the thick heavy smell of high grade smog. Few bots were in the room, in one corner three were playing cards, two were playing pool on the other side of the room. A few tables were occupied by at least one or two bots, and the bar had at least four seated there. A small group of three bots were having drinking competition while at the very end of the bar was one lone bot who stood out among the rest._

_He smiled, waving around the seats and bots to make it to the lone bot sitting by himself. “This seat taken?”_

_The bot only spared him a glance, grunting as he took a seat next to him. He smiled, not minding the rudeness. Lockdown had been known to be a little less then formal to other hunters, but he at least held some respect to other bounty hunters. If their reputation was good enough that is._

_And he had a pretty good feeling that his reputation was going to skyrocket today._

_“Places feels kind of empty today, don’t you think?” He asked, signaling the bartender for a drink. “You’d think that running a business like this one, bots of the underground would come here more often.”_

_The bot grunted._

_“The drinks are pretty good.” The bartender slid his drink over and he nodded at them. “Better than the last few I’ve been to. But I bet you’ve been to better bars before this one.” He downed his drink in one go, turning to Lockdown with an easygoing smile. “I bet you’ve gone and had every drink at each bar, ordering their best and—”_

_“Ludicrous.” The hunter’s deep voice made him stop, trying and failing to not flinch as Lockdown slowly turned his helm and gazed at him with one red optic. “How many times do I hav’ ta tell ya ‘fore ya finally get it locked in yer processor.” His optic slowly narrowed. “I. Don’t. Care. Fer. Idle. Chit. Chat.”_

_“… U-uh. Right.” Ludicrous cleared his vox, signaling the bartender for another drink. “S-sorry. It’s just…” He fiddled with his empty glass, trying hard not to think about the small pain in his spark. “It’s been a while since I’ve talked to one of my carrier’s friends.”_

_Lockdown’s gazed didn’t shift from its narrow glare. “We weren’t ever friends.” The hunter huffed, taking a small drink from his glass. “Weren’t ever even close. Jus’ a bot to han’ with when drinkin’.”_

_Ludicrous narrowed his optics a bit, but quickly put on an easy smile on his faceplate. “Well, at least you remember her.”_

_Lockdown grunted, looking back at Ludicrous with a deep frown on his faceplate. “… What’s with yer optics?”_

_“What about them?” Ludicrous grinned, keeping his optics widen open so the hunter could get a good look at them._

_“… they’re green.”_

_“I know right?!” He smiled wide, doing a little pose. “Took me ages to notice the change, but boy was the surprise worth it!” Lockdown kept glaring at him through narrow optics, frowning deeply at him._

_“Ya didn’t even know yer optics were changin’… unbelievable.” Lockdown shifted his gaze away, downing the rest of his drink._

_“I was too busy focusing on my last target to notice the change.” Ludicrous shrugged, leaning close to Lockdown. “And let me tell you, they were a tou—” Lockdown grabbed his face, shoving him away with a growl._

_“Too close.” The hunter shoved him away, almost completely shoving him off his seat. Ludicrous straitened himself, looking at Lockdown with a small frown and angry glare. Taking a dent vent, Ludicrous put on an easy face, trying hard not to snap at the hunter._

_“Sorry. Manners seem to slip me when I’m on a… new hunt. A really good hunt actually, for one of a kind type of bot.” Lockdown glared at him, snapping his digits. The bartender grabbed a bottle, sliding it down to Lockdown who caught it easily in his hook. “I’m talking a big, BIG game here.” Ludicrous took it as a sign to continue, watching as Lockdown bit on the bottle’s top. He flinched when the hunter jerked his neck and broke the top right off, spitting it to the wall, embedding itself there. “… Soo… I’m sure it’ll get my name out there. Bot’s are sure to be ringing me up for my services… It just might make me a bigger name than you.”_

_“… really?” Lockdown hardly looked at him, poring the bottle’s contents into his glass. He didn’t miss the way Lockdown’s tone shifted, catching the light hint of amusement in it._

_“Y-Yes!” Ludicrous smiled, leaning on the counter. “A one of a kind bounty hunt that will certainly put me on the top spot!”_

_Lockdown snorted, taking a swing of his drink. Ludicrous grinned, feeling his spark racing in its casing. “Well, that’s certainly news. Who’s yer new hunt?”_

_“I’m not telling you! You might take them down before me!” Ludicrous snatched the bottle, pouring himself a drink. “Just be satisfied to know that it’s sure to be a good hunt.”_

_“Don’t get yer hopes up till ya finished the job first.” Lockdown snorted, downing the rest of his drink._

_“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be a good hunt.” Ludicrous smirked, downing his drink._

_Lockdown rolled his optics. “Well if yer so sure, how ‘bout ya pay my tab? The reward so cover the cost if it’s such a big shot game.”_

_Ludicrous shrugged, lifting his glass up. “Sure, I’m feeling generous today. How much do you owe?”_

_“2,764,962,659 shanix.”_

_Ludicrous spat out his drink, spraying the poor bartender. “_ **What?!** _All that shanix just for one bar?!”_

_“Oh, no.” Lockdown chuckled, taking back the bottle and pouring himself another glass. “I owe this bar ‘bout… mmm… 79,645,438 shanix. The rest is jus’ from the other bars I owe credits to.”_

_Ludicrous looked at the bot in complete disbelief. “H-H… How did you manage to have a debt that **big**?! Seven—! My Primus! Do you not watch your drinking habits?!”_

_“Primus.” Lockdown sighed, shaking his helm. “Tone down yer screamin’, will ya? I get enough of that from Swindle when he saw my last bill.”_

_“… ugh._ Swindle _.” Ludicrous frowned, turning back to his drink. “The sleazebag of a sales mech. I don’t understand what other’s see in that bot that they find appealing! I mean, his prices are ridiculous, he was a former Autobot, he steals more than sells, and not to mention that thanks to him he’s the reason my carrier is dead! And what’s worse is when I confronted him about it, he didn’t even care! It was_ **his** _weapon that he sold! I don’t care if he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger! He should take responsibility for his actions!”_

_“… sounds like ya don’t like him much.”_

_“Like him? Tck! Can’t stand him is more like! I mean, am I the only one in the universe who can see though that bot?! He’s a cheap, a cheapskate, robber, and don’t get me started on those creepy purple optics of his because they are without a doubt the ugliest—!” The sound of glass breaking interrupted Ludicrous. Turning his helm around, he found Lockdown, with a broken glass in his servo, staring at him with the oddest look on his face. “… what’s the matter with you?”_

_“… what… did’ja say… ‘bout his optics.”_

_“I said they were ugly.” Ludicrous shrugged, not catching the dark look crossing Lockdown’s face. “And it’s true too. Who would want to have optics in that color? I wouldn’t! And have you even seen his pupils?! Ugh! Don’t know why he would change his optics like that, he should have stuck with normal red optics instead of creepy purple cat ones. It’s more off-putting like that. Maybe then he would less horrifying if-_ **HURK!** _”_

_Ludicrous drooped his glass, gripping Lockdown’s servo as the bot slowly stood, lifting Ludicrous by his neck cables in an iron death grip, digging his digits and bits of glass in the sensitive wiring. Bots who heard and saw the commotion quickly got up and scrambled to the exit, seeing the fury in Lockdown’s optics and wanting no part of it._

_Lockdown tightened his grip on Ludicrous’s neck, glaring his fiery red optics at the bot. Swiftly, Lockdown tossed Ludicrous, flinging him like he was nothing but a small piece of scrap metal. Ludicrous flew across the room, landing on top of some tables that toppled and broke from his impact. Before the bot had a chance to recover, Lockdown rushed at him, pounding one ped on his chest right over his spark._

_With a swift kick, Lockdown sent Ludicrous flying again, this time however he grabbed one of the bot’s stabilizers, flipping him over his helm and slamming him to the ground. With a swift tug, Lockdown slammed Ludicrous over and over, smashing him into tables and chairs and sometimes throwing him up high and delivering a hard kick to his middle or his helm as he fell._

_When he was done slamming him around, Lockdown grabbed him by the neck again, dragging him over to the pool table and threw him upon it. Grabbing the metal stick, Lockdown buried one end down hard into Ludicrous’s wrist, piercing through the armor easily enough. Ludicrous screamed, trying to kick Lockdown away, but the hunter only grabbed the other stick and stuck it through his other servo, pinning him to the table._

_Fearful green optics stared up at Lockdown’s burning red optics, knowing he was at the mercy of the bot. He tried opening his intake to speak, but a sharp pain went through his jaw, stopping any words from leaving his intake._

_“Now you listen here, n’ listen up!” Lockdown growled, pulling his hook to tug painfully at Ludicrous’s jaw so the bot couldn’t look away. “If I_ **EVER** _hear ya talkin’ bad or insultin’ Swindle ever again, I’ll make yer last moments the most **PAINFUL** moments you’ve ever experienced in yer life that you’ll regret the solar cycle ya emerged! N’ if ya so much as lay a digit on him or even _**THINK** _‘bout makin’ a bounty out of him, I’ll tear off yer helm n’ stick it to the hood of my ship so that **EVERYONE** can see the sorry state you put yerself into, got it?!”_

_Ludicrous stared up in horror at the bot._

_“_ **GOT IT?!** _”_

_Ludicrous shook his helm, tasting energon seeping down his throat. Lockdown glared at him for a good cycle._

_And then he yanked his hook, tearing off Ludicrous’s jaw. Pain flooded the bots senses as he stared up at Lockdown. “_ That _.” The hunter growled, throwing the jaw away. “Was fer tryin’ to poison me n’ thinkin’ ya could collect my bounty.” Lockdown sneered, lower his helm and glaring deep into Ludicrous’s optics as he spoke coldly. “N’ nothin’ screams **coward** louder than usin’ poison to do all the work.”_

 _Lockdown delivered a swift heavy kick to Ludicrous’s middle. “N’_ **THAT** _was fer insultin’ Swindle right in front of me.” With a snort, Lockdown turned and left, leaving the trapped bot in deep pain and fear._

* * *

If there was one thing Ludicrous learned that day, it was to never talk bad about a bounty hunter’s mechfriend. **_Especially_** if it was Lockdown’s mechfriend.

And it was best to keep _any_ threat from Lockdown to spark.

The hunter was known to keep his threats if any bot stepped out of line. And not a lot of bots out there wanted to test the hunter’s patience, and Ludicrous had been on pretty thin patience with Lockdown since that solar cycle.

And try as he might, Ludicrous couldn’t wrap his helm how _Lockdown_ , of all bots out there, would ever fall for a bot like **_Swindle_**.

Any info he tried to dig up on the sleazy con-mech never mentioned being under Lockdown’s protection, yet the hunter himself had made it very clear that **_Swindle_** was very much under his safety to all other bounty hunters out there across the galaxy after one hunter tried ending **_Swindle’s_** life. Only for the hunter met their end after Lockdown had found out about it and put it the hunter’s dead body on public display for news to get out quickly to all other hunters out there.

And Ludicrous had not been happy about. Not one bit.

 ** _Swindle_** was a thick thorn to his side. The bot had his carrier killed by selling the weapon that had killed her to a long time enemy of hers. A double XT-high calibrated laser gun, a deadly weapon. And **_Swindle_** had been the bot to give that weapon to his carrier’s killers.

He had long since dealt with his carrier’s killers, but **_Swindle_** was another matter. The bot was hard to track, even harder to find any info about that could give him an edge against him. And when he did manage to get a lead on the bot, it was only through a video screen that he saw the fragger’s face. A damn video screen, the only thing separating him and the fragger. What was worse was the bot didn’t care that his carrier was offline, or that he had caused it in the first place.

He never hated a bot as much as **_Swindle_** , but he managed to make it to the top of bots he disliked the most. He wanted nothing more than to make the bot suffer for what he had done!

But there was one problem.

 _Lockdown_.

The top hunter had apparently taken the black market arms dealer as a mechfriend, though they both denied being in a relationship despite being seen together plenty of times. And the hunter didn’t seem to like it when other’s eyed the smaller bot for any reason. Fellow hunter or any other bots tried to keep clear of **_Swindle_** thanks to the fear of Lockdown keeping them in line. The same reason why Ludicrous never hunted down the bot for revenge.

Not until he ran into the bot again and luck was finally on his side. His new frame and colors had completely fooled the bot, posing as a bot name Luck who serviced as a bodyguard, he was able to get close to the sleazy bot and find out that he and Lockdown were no longer in contact or seeing each other. He was practically giddy with joy, and it only made it better when he convinced the cheapskate to hire him as a bodyguard, making it so easy to poison the bot with slow act poison.

He enjoyed watching the bot slowly withering away and not even realizing what was happening to him. Or that his trusty bodyguard ‘Luck’ was slowly poisoning him over the orbital cycle, watching with joy as he got worse and worse each passing solar cycle. He hated being in the bot’s presence for so long, he reveled in the idea of standing over the bot during his final moments, revealing his true form and designation as the bot slowly offlined in complete agony. How he would laugh and destroy everything **_Swindle_** had built for stellar cycles in a single solar cycle and gain a huge bounty all in one swoop.

That was the _plan_ anyway.

But ** _Swindle_** just **had** to make it difficult on him

The bot had upped and disappeared on him.

He wasn’t on the planet, Ludicrous had checked high and low everywhere on the planet, and any bot he interrogated about his whereabouts were of no help. He knew **_Swindle_** wouldn’t just leave his ship full of valuable weapons inside, the arms dealer wasn’t that **_dumb_** , ( _unfortunately_ ), to leave behind something like that.

After a whole deca-cycle of searching, it became clear to him that _**Swindle**_ was no longer on the planet. He was **_furious_**. The bot must had been acting and knew he was lying from the start and left him there!

In anger, Ludicrous grabbed all the weapons and valuables with the intent to sell and keep some of them and blew the whole ship up. It felt nice watching the ship burn away into a crisp. At least he wouldn’t have to keep looking at that ‘ _tree_ ’ **_Swindle_** liked so much. Planets were ugly in his opinion anyway.

After that was done, he had gone out searching for the bot, looking on the closest planets for any leads but always turned up empty, which just fueled his anger more and more. He called it quits soon after and headed for his hideout. He was sure **_Swindle_** would probably be dead by now anyway. The poison he had put in his systems weren’t curable and he was sure the bot had succumbed to it already.

_So much for gloating his victory._

Now he was back at his hideout, home sweet home…

**_Trying to survive._ **

Ludicrous panted, holding his limbless shoulder as energon seeped out of his wound. Bits of sparks flew out from the exposed wiring, giving him a nasty view of his insides.

The assassin flinched, trying to remain quiet as heavy footfalls passed by, hearing an angry huff from his attacker in an animalistic snort. Remaining still as best he could, he waited till the footsteps passed before moving to a new spot.

He was dead.

He was **_so_** dead.

He had thought he was safe in his secret base, thinking to wait for the news of some bot finding **_Swindle’s_** offlined body to appear on his screen, only to get a **_nasty_** surprise waiting for him there.

**_Lockdown._ **

Ludicrous had been taken completely off-guard by the surprise attack by the hunter, attacking out from the shadows he was hiding in and mercilessly ripping out his arm like nothing. Ludicrous was, by far, not a fighter. He was a bot that relied on his poisons to weaken and take down his enemies, his body wasn’t built for tough fight. His carrier had always mentioned that he got it from his sire, but right now, he wished he had gotten his carrier’s larger powerful frame instead of a lanky frame.

But no. He had a weak form, a weak frame. It helped making others falsely believe he couldn’t much damage before his poisons kicked in and killed them. He was fast and nimble, quick to slip toxins in drinks and prick someone with small sharp needles that they hardly noticed or felt. But it was not strong, not powerful enough to take on big bots that his poisons could not kill instantly.

And Lockdown?

Lockdown was a **_MONSTER_**.

Physically **_and_** mentally.

Any normal, smart and dumb, could see so many things wrong with that bot’s body. Several being that that bot would tear and attach parts to himself, it wasn’t hard to see that in the mismatching limbs he had all over his body. It was creepy, if not downright **terrifying** how one bot could just take someone else’s parts and just attach them to himself. It was a morbid thing to think about.

Slamming his back against a crate, Ludicrous tried to get his spark under control, venting deeply to slow its racing down somewhat. Closing his optics, he tried remembering the layout of his base, thinking of the exits he had placed around in case of emergencies and calculating which was closer to get to. With a plan in mind, he readied himself, opening his optics…

To see a glaring Lockdown right in front of him.

Ludicrous would have screamed, but Lockdown grabbed him by the neck, powerful enough to crush his vox slightly, but it was enough to stop him from screaming. The hunter lifted Ludicrous up, glaring venomously at him.

Ludicrous, through his panic and pain, tried burring his remaining digits into Lockdown’s arm, hoping that the quick acting poisons he stored in them would kill Lockdown.

“… a billion stellar cycles… _n’ ya still learned nothin’_.” The hunter growled, throwing Ludicrous behind him. The silver and deep blue bot tried to get up, but received a powerful kick to the helm, sending him flipping over on his front. A deep pain entered his back, and Ludicrous gasped as he back felt like it was on fire, feeling or rather hearing metal and cables being torn out.

“I gave ya a clear, **strict** , warrin’ Ludicrous.” Lockdown growled above him. “Clear ‘nough that even the most brick-head of bots could get it. All ya had to do, was _Stay Away From Swindle_!” The hunter growled deeply, lifting his leg up and slamming it into the wound. Ludicrous gasped in pain, scratching the ground for any grip to get away from the enraged hunter.

“It was a very, _very_ , **_VERY_** simple rule I gave ya. One I **expected** ya to follow.” Ludicrous tried to get away, but Lockdown dug his ped in deeper, twisting it on the assassin’s spinal strut. “N’ wouldn’t ya know it. _Ya didn’t._ ”

Lockdown lifted his ped, but Ludicrous didn’t have a moment to relax as Lockdow’s hook came down on his damaged limbless shoulder. “Even with all the warnin’s I gave ya, n’ the rest of ‘em out there.” Ludicrous was lifted up, meeting the angry gaze of Lockdown. “N’ yet, not only did ya ignore my warnin’, ya went n’ poisoned Swindle fer a whole _orbital cycle_ posin’ as some cheap _bodyguard_.”

“H-He told me you cut ties with him!” Ludicrous screamed, kicking his stabilizers weakly, and in horror found that his left one wasn’t responding. “He told me you were no longer seeing each other! You-You even threatened to _kill_ him if you saw him again!”

“N’ in what way made ya think that I would be okay in lettin’ ya break the one order I gave ya?” Lockdown sneered, transforming his left servo into a chainsaw.

Ludicrous screamed as Lockdown began cutting away at his body. “ _This_ is fer breakin’ my order! _That_ was fer tryin’ to poison me! _This_ is fer the trouble of trackin’ ya down! _That_ was fer blowin’ up Swin’s ship! **_N’!_** ” Lockdown brought the bare conscious Ludicrous close to his faceplate. “ ** _THIS_.** Is fer **_poisin’_** Swin **_n’_** his kid fer an _orbital cycle_ that put them in critical condition!”

“K-kid?” Ludicrous asked, barely holding on to his conscious as Lockdown moved. His optics, one that was still working, widened as Lockdown moved towards a large furnace, the same furnace his carrier made herself from scrap and earned her legacy from. “n-no. N-No.”

Ludicrous struggled as Lockdown grabbed the lever, pulling down on it. The door to the furnace hissed, creaking open with a horrible screech that filled the base and drowned out Ludicrous’s increasing hysterical screams as it grew wider and wider, struggling weakly in Lockdown’s grip who merely just watched in irritation. When the door was finally open, Lockdown looked down at Ludicrous one last time with wild fury before tossing the screaming bot into the hot fires of his carrier’s furnace.

* * *

When the screams finally stopped and the fire died down megacycles later, Lockdown pulled the lever, peaking inside.

With the last of the dying embers, he could barely make out a twisted, heated melted lump of metal and burnt wires and circuit boards that had once been the assassin Ludicrous, laid out on the coals and embers. Now his small legacy ended, just like the many other lives that his carrier had ended in here, laid out dying in the embers of the furnace.

Lockdown snorted, lifting the lever and allowing the door to close, sealing the dying fire inside.

With his job done, Lockdown left the building, uninterested in the hung bodies and toxic formulas Ludicrous had lazily kept out in the open. He had done what he needed to do, and he wanted no reminders of that **_bot_** anywhere in his ship. Outside the building, he transformed and drove away, watching through his mirrors as he got further and further, feeling satisfied when the building blew up.

Originally, he was just going to beat Ludicrous to the point where he couldn’t even move, leaving him there and then activating the bombs he had hidden inside once he was at a safe distance. However, fighting the bot made him realize that blowing him up would be too kind and quick, a **_merciful_** death. So slow painful burning death it was.

It wasn’t long before Lockdown made it to his ship, sending a signal to deactivate its cloaking and drove up the ramp into the warmth and comfort of the Death’s Head. A few cycles later, the Death’s Head was leaving the planet’s orbit and soon it was only Lockdown flying through space again.

Stretching himself, he walked down to his personal room, punching in the code and stepping inside quietly. The inside of his personal room was no more of a mess than his ship, filled with trinkets and odd items that he had collected over the stellar cycles. Swindle often complained how he should organize his room whenever he stepped into the room, although Lockdown didn’t mind the insult much as Swindle seemed to always respect his personal collection.

 _Speaking of the bot_.

Lockdown frowned a bit at the still form laid out on their side on his berth, clutching his poncho in a vice-lick grip. Quietly as he could, Lockdown went over and kneeled down next to it, gripping Swindle’s shoulder gently and shook it. “Swindle. Hey, Swin.”

Swindle groaned, blinking his dull purple optics open slowly. “mmm… lockdown?” The mech tried to get up, but Lockdown kept him down, patting his shoulder gently. “are we… there… ?”

“Na, we’re not there yet Swin.” Lockdown shook his helm slightly, rubbing Swindle’s arm. “Jus’ makin’ sure yer still with me… how ya feelin’?”

“the usual.” Swindle groaned, sighing a bit. “my headache is gone though. so, that’s good… i guess.”

“Means the poison startin’ to get out of yer system.” Lockdown grinned slightly, not enough to be seen but it was there. “Still there n’ needs to be taken care of, but caught it jus’ in time ‘fore it killed ya.”

“how did you know it was poison?” Swindle asked as Lockdown stood.

“Knew a bot who specialized in poisonin’ others, a assassin for hire. He had poison’s n’ toxins that put other’s to shame n’ brought down countless settlements with ‘em. He was once one of my bounties a long time ago n’ I knew of his reputation, as did many others.” Lockdown explained, sitting down on the end of the berth. “This was durin’ when the war was nearin’ its end. The bot was neutral so both sides worried who he was gonna side with in the end, Bots or Cons. He would have been a great asset to either side durrin’ the war n’ killed a good number of deal from both sides, but in the end they all figured the bot was better in the Well of AllSparks n’ called up on me to deal with him.”

He looked at Swindle. “I personally didn’t like him. Always thought poisonin’ bots was some cheap cheat card. But I knew the bot was no joke, so I swiped some samplin’ of his poison n’ gave it to a bot I could trust who could neutralize it. Had to do a few… unpleasant tests to find a way to counteract it, n’ many bots lost their lives tryin’ to achieve it. Saw plenty of them die right in front of me, n’ none of it was pretty. Once it was done, I became immune to it n’ fought the bot. He may have been a cheat but he was pretty good in a fight I’ll give him that. Good… but not good ‘nough. Got the job done in the end.”

Swindle nodded his helm. “and this bot? the one who neutralize the poison. that’s who we’re going to see, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Lockdown sighed. “Haven’t seen ‘em in a while, but I’m sure they can help.” He looked at Swindle, placing his servo over the merchant’s chest. He could just barely feel Swindle’s spark beating under his touch, which worried the mercenary that they might be too late to save the other spark. “If not fer you, they might fer the scarplet ya got in ya.”

Swindle frowned, slapping at Lockdown’s servo weakly. “do, _not_ , call them that.”

“What? What’s wron’ with callin’ ‘em scarplet?”

“it’s not a scarplet, it’s a sparkling.”

“More like chest bug if ya ask me.” Lockdown chuckled as Swindle slapped his arm.


	28. Mysterious Sire (ShockBlurr)

“Gran-Gran!”

“Hello my little zipper!” SpeedStarr laughed as her great-grandling dashed into her outstretched arms, hugging him tightly as the young bitlet nuzzled his helm under her chin. “Oh my goodness you’re getting big!” She exclaimed as she pulled back a little, looking at Shockrr up and down with a wide smile. “You’re looking more and more like your carrier each time I come by for a visit!”

Shockrr giggled, kicking his stabilizers a bit. “Sire says that too!”

“Really now? _I wonder why_.” SpeedStarr mumbled the last part to herself, setting Shockrr down before looking at Blurr. “Right then. Anything I should know before you run off?”

“I/think/you/already/know/everything/Gran/you’ve/visited/plenty/of/times/so/I’m/sure/you/know/enough/but/just/to/be/sure/Shockrr/should/behave/himself/and/eat/whatever/you/give/him/but/ _PLEASE_ /don’t/give/him/any/sweets/before/recharge/it/takes/ _megacycles_ /to/get/him/to/calm/down/again/and/he/shouldn’t/stay/up/too/late/and/he/should/be/kept/an/extreme/optic/on/he/tends/to/run/off/a/lot/in/new/places/so/just/be/very/careful/if/you/take/him/out/somewhere/and—”

“O-kay B, I think I got everything down.” SpeedStarr patted Blurr on the helm.

“Are/you/sure/Gran?/I/could/leave/you/a/few/notes/if/you/need—”

“No I’m good Blurr. I got everything down.” She smiled, looking down at Shockrr. “I can handle spending time with my great-grandling for a deca-cycle.”

“Actually/you’re/only/watching/him/for/at/least/seven/solar/cycles/I/intend/to/get/this/mission/done/swift—”

“Yes, yes, I know B.” SpeedStarr rolled her optics, turning Blurr around and pushing him towards his ship. She loved her eldest grandling, truly she did, but sometimes his worries for his sparkling were a servoful at times. “I got everything, so don’t you worry. Nothing bad will happen with Shockrr under my watch.”

“Yes/I/know/but/Gran—”

“Don’t Gran me mister, you need to get to that mission right away!”

“Yes/I/know/the/mission/is/important/but/Gran—”

“As an Elite Agent, it’s your duty to focus on your missions’ first out on the field.”

“Yes/I/know/but/Gran—”

“Don’t worry B! I got Shockrr completely under my care, you just take care of that mission!” SpeedStarr shoved Blurr into his ship.

“But/Gran—”

“Oh stop worrying so much will you? Shockrr’s going to been fine! I’ve watched him plenty of times, so don’t worry. Besides, if trouble did arise, you know I can handle it!”

Blurr looked at his grand-carrier than at his sparkling. Shockrr stood right where SpeedStarr had set him down, smiling at him with an innocent tilt of his helm. “…/well/alright./I/guess/you/got/a/point/Gran/but/if/there’s/any/trouble/you/know/how/to/contact/me/so/I/can/rush—”

“Blurr. Mission. _Now_.” SpeedStarr shut Blurr in his ship, going to her youngest grandling and picking him up. They both waved as Blurr’s ship took off, watching it go and disappear in the stars. “… right!” Setting her grandling down, she looked at him sternly. “Before we head off, there’s a few rules you must _strictly_ follow little zipper.”

Shockrr tilted his helm, frowning a bit.

“Rule number one! Always listen to your Gran-Gran. Rule number two! Obey rule number one. Got it?”

Shockrr nodded.

“Great! Now… let’s get some frozen treats!”

Shockrr cheered as SpeedStarr raced with him to get some treats.

* * *

Shockrr had been to his Gran-Gran’s home plenty of times. The little bitlet knew nearly every corner of the place as well as his home, so he wasn’t worried about getting lost and Gran-Gran didn’t seem to mind letting him wander around the place.

Gran-Gran was a fun bot to Shockrr’s optics. She was funny, kind, loving, and she showered him with treats and love. Though she didn’t like Sire too much for some reason and Sire got scared of her whenever she came to visit. Carrier said he would explain when he got a little bit older.

Still, Gran-Gran was a fun bot and Shockrr loved her.

Zipping around her home, Shockrr was able to see new things like old items and photos that hung on her wall, seeing picture of other bots he’d never seen before and some with younger versions of his Carrier. There was one photo of his Carrier and Sire together grossly kissing each other, **_blegh!_** And there was another photo showing Gran-Gran looking a bit different with an odd bot he’d never seen before. Carrier once told him that was his Great-grand sire and that he shouldn’t ask his Gran-Gran where he went.

It made her sad if he did.

But he was allowed to ask her questions like.

How fast can you run? Can you run faster than me? Can you run faster than Carrier? What happened to your horn? Did you helmbutt someone and it broke off? Why are you laughing? Can I have a cool laugh as yours? Why is Carrier so small in this picture? Were you this small once? How did you get so big? How did Carrier get so big? Why does Sire shift from being big and small all the time? Does he have any argument with his size a lot? Why are you laughing on the ground? If you and Carrier are blue, why am I orange? Why does Sire hide his big form from everyone but us? Why don’t you live on Cybertron with us? How did we get so fast?

Gran-Gran gave him a lot of answers to his questions, though some of them just confused the poor bot than clear things up. But there was one question that he asked but never got an answer to.

Where’s Carrier’s creators?

That was always meet with metal silence from her with an odd look on her face. One that made Shockrr scared for a bit before the odd look went away and Gran-Gran would offer him sweets or a race.

He didn’t understand why though, Sire always talked about his creators when Shockrr couldn’t recharge at night, telling him stories about his grand-creators like how they met and what they did and who they were that helped his relax and recharge. They sounded like great bots and he wanted to meet them, but Sire sadly told him that they had gone to the Well of AllSparks, a place where all bots go to at some point but can never travel there or find the place.

This made him sad a bit, but then he asked if they could visit Carrier’s creators. That was always met with mixed reactions from his creators. Carrier would cry a bit and Sire would often say that he couldn’t. He always thought they meant Carrier’s creators were in the Well of AllSpark just like Sire’s creators, but then one night he overheard something.

_“How many times do I have to tell you not to call?! This goes against the restraining order you slagger! … I don’t care if you’re Blurr’s sire! We made it very clear that you are to stay out of Blurr’s life! … NO! No you can NOT see your grandling! You cut Blurr out of your life and were horrible to him! I don’t want you filth near my child or Blurr ever again! You’re not going to get near him or ever see him! … I know who you are and I don’t care! If you show your faceplate around my family I’ll rip out your optics and stuff them down your intake you hear me?!”_

That was the first time he heard his Sire get angry like that and for once he didn’t want to know why his Sire got angry. But he did know one thing. Carrier’s Sire was still here, but for some reason they weren’t allowed to see Carrier or him. He wanted to ask Sire why, but he didn’t want to make him angry at him. And his Carrier didn’t seem to like talking about his creators.

So who was a better option?

Gran-Gran of course!

She would know! She would tell him everything he needed to know about Carrier’s Sire and—

“That **_bot_**. Is _NOT_. Your Carrier’s. **_Sire_**.”

The little bitlet looked up at his Gran-Gran in confusion. “Huh?”

His Gran-Gran was shaking, looking at her energon with a scary look. “…” She was silent a moment before looking at him, smiling a bit. “That bot… is a bad bad bot. He’s not someone you want to ever know sweetie and your… Sire… has that right to be angry with him. It’s best to forget about him and not look too deeply into it, okay?”

Hearing that, that left Shockrr even more confused than before. Why? Why should he not look too deeply into this bot? Was he ugly inside? Must be if Sire and Gran-Gran didn’t like him.

But why? Did he not clean himself often? And why did no one want him to meet this mysterious sire? And why was he not allowed never Carrier and him? So many questions.

Maybe when he got a bit older, he could find out more.


	29. Early Arrival (BlitzBee)

If Bumblebee was asked how much he remembered about that one certain night, he could honestly say he didn’t remember much.

The night the small spark inside him decided to come out had been a complete rush of pain, panic, and fading in and out of consciousness during the whole thing. All he could clearly remember was being led to the medbay in the ship by Ratchet, feeling very off with a strong sense to hide away while deeply yearning for Blitzwing’s company. The team had decided that since Megatron knew about Bee’s condition, he would have to be moved and stay on the ship where the security was much safer than the base.

The major down side of the plan was that Bee would be separated from Blitzwing.

The pair had protested at first when informed, but Ratchet had put his ped down and made no room for argument, pointing out serious facts and flaws if Bumblebee were to stay any longer at the base. As much as Bee wanted to stay with Blitzwing, he knew the risks were too high for him and his sparkling. He at least got to spend an orbital cycle with his mechfriend before he was moved to the ship. Bumblebee mostly sulked when he was moved to the ship, but didn’t argue too much about it. Didn’t mean he still couldn’t sulk about it in his room though.

His room on the ship was just as messy as his room at the base. Though, he mostly blamed the crashes for that. It wasn’t personally decked out like his room back at the base, but it certainly held a few treasures that he kept for stellar cycles.

Small metal boxes were stored inside cabinets and shelves, each containing a small stone carved sculpture. Each were unique and different from one another, each made with love and care that Blitzwing poured into just for him. Bee was never into art as much as Blitzwing, but he kept those small sculptures, every last one that Blitzwing had gifted him over the stellar cycles.

Most had been destroyed by the crash, and Bumblebee had tried fixing them as best that he could, but he couldn’t save them all. The few that did survive the crash had been moved to the base while most of the broken ones stayed on the ship. Part of him guessed it was lucky that he did, working on fixing his broken gifts helped passed most of the time. Sitting cross legged at a small table a pair of tweezers putting pieces back on the broken sculptures. It was a good thing all the broken gifts were kept in the boxes Blitzwing had sent them in so none of the broken bits got mixed together. It helped passed the time and keep him mind off things till Ratchet would come in, bring fuel or checking up on Bee.

Staying on the ship had not been easy as Bee longed for Blitzwing’s company nearly every megacycle and it didn’t help that Ratchet was there monitoring his condition. They had a few spats here and there during their time there, but thankfully it never escalated to anything other than that. The old medic did probe Bee on his taste in mechs once or twice but didn’t push too far on his history with Blitzwing.

Bumblebee didn’t know whether to be grateful or concerned that Ratchet was being a little bit nicer than normal. Certainly wasn’t Ratchet’s style but Bee was rather grateful not to have a wrench thrown at his helm for any back comment he made. Bee had been too tired to do anything but listen to Ratchet and do what he asked. Optimus popped by for visits a few times, making sure the two hadn’t killed each other or anything. Bee often asked how the others were doing, especially Blitzwing, and felt some relief hearing about what everyone was up to since there was basically nothing to do on the ship.

For the most part, Blitzwing had been staying under the base far from everyone sulking in the darkness and hardly talking to anyone who tried to get him to open up. This hadn’t surprised Bee. Blitzwing had the tendency to be a bit difficult when his mood was down. Bee knew that Blitzwing just needed to have a bit of time and space before anyone could approach him to talk. He did give Prime some advice on helping Blitzwing relax a bit, hoping it would help ease off any tension between the team and Blitzwing.

He didn’t want things to escalate to the point of having Blitzwing in stasis cuffs.

It was near the end of his fourth orbital cycle that Bumblebee felt… off. His chest felt odd in way he couldn’t describe and his body ached in his joints. He didn’t feel like getting up or eating anything, he didn’t talk as much when Ratchet probed him, and one night he tried hiding away in his room buried under an old tarp in the corner feeling very off. Ratchet had been quick to notice his change in behavior and had to coax Bee out as gently as the old medic could. He could vaguely remember Ratchet comm Optimus about something, though he only caught Blitzwing’s name in the conversation before the old medic started leading him down the hall to the medbay.

After that, Bumblebee only remember getting halfway there before he felt a sharp horrible pain in his chest, some screaming and cursing in German, and fading in and out for Primus knows how long before finally succumbing to the darkness. He didn’t remember how long he was out for when he finally woke up. All he did remember was waking up to finding Ratchet working on his insides and feeling like complete slag and drained.

Ratchet had said something when he noticed Bee was awake, but Bumblebee couldn’t remember any of it. He was barely conscious at the moment and nothing felt real or in place to him before he passed out again. It wasn’t too long after that that he woke up again, still feeling like slag but had a bit of control of his body this time and felt a small weight on his chest.

When he looked down, he was greeted by the most precious sight he would never forget.

A small sparkling, the smallest he had ever seen, was laid curled up on his chest over his spark. She was so small, Bee could easily cup her in one servo comfortably. Others could say she wasn’t a pretty thing to look at, with wires and cables attached to her chest and the back of her helm, her protoform skin was still grey and hadn’t developed her colors, large blue and red energon lines were visible all over her body as well as her chest being wide open, showing her small beating spark. She was clearly under developed just by one look at her as her features had not even come in yet.

Others would have found her ugly.

Bumblebee thought she was the most beautiful being he had ever laid optics on.

Immediately he knew this was his sparkling and he couldn’t care less about her looks because to him she was the most perfect being he had ever seen. Though he would deny that he cried fat ugly coolant tears that day hugging his new spark close to him.

Hardly had he let anyone close to his new spark, giving them death glares and small zaps of his stingers to keep them away, though Ratchet would disarmed him of his stingers during checkups after shooting the medic in the faceplate when he was reaching for the sparkling one time. Once Ratchet had giving him the all clear, Bee had tried taking his new spark out of the medbay but was quickly stopped by the old medic.

Too early.

Too small.

Too weak.

Too many health dangers he was told.

His new spark had emerged too early, which explained why she was so small and under developed. Ratchet had tried explaining it the softest way that he could to Bee, but it all came down to the same thing in his processor.

His sparkling might not make it to the end of the orbital cycle.

Ratchet was a little stumped that she managed to survive being extracted from Bumblebee gestation tank during the emergency removal, but the old medic was sure that without constant medical care, there was a real high chance she could go offline.

Bumblebee didn’t leave the medbay the whole time his sparkling was there. He didn’t want to risk leaving his sparkling when she needed him the most. Ratchet often found him recharging next to the special container that monitored his sparkling’s health and no one could convince the young scout to go rest.

As the solar cycles passed, Bee could see the slow progress in his sparkling’s health improving. Slowly her features started coming in, wires and cables were removed from her chest and helm when they were no longer needed, she was still small though no longer tiny in a worrying way, and slowly her protoform skin started getting stronger and the energon lines became less and less visible. When her color started coming in, Bee finally felt some relief.

When Ratchet finally gave him the all clear of her health, Bumblebee finally relaxed, holding her close to his chest as the stress melted away from his body. And _no_ he did not cry big fat coolant tears when she let out a tiny beep for the first time. There was just dust in the air that was all.

“She’s a stubborn one, I’ll give her that.” Ratchet said, handing Bee his sparkling back. “Must have gotten that from you.”

“Probably.” Bee smiled, looking down at his sparkling. She was still a small little thing, but she looked a lot healthier now. The visibility of the energon lines had diminished, bits of her features were now coming in (Bumblebee laughed a bit when he noticed a pair of small nubs on top her helm), and her colors were finally in. He was a little confused as her coloring was… odd. What he read and seen about sparklings, they were only supposed to be one solid color till their armor grew in, yet his sparkling was a splash of vibrant colors.

Her chest started out with a bright yellow that slowly melted to an orange before turning to a bright red and ended with a vibrant deep purple at the ends of her limbs. An odd beautiful mix that had Bee staring in confusion and wonder while it had Ratchet stumped. The old medic couldn’t find anything wrong with her coloring and it wasn’t messing with her systems, but it was still something he kept watch over.

“But I guess that’s a good thing to have right now, huh?” Bee slipped one of his digit’s into his sparkling’s little servo. She let out a small squeak, grabbing his digit and holding it tight, melting Bee’s spark with her cuteness.

“Heh. Guess so.” Ratchet smirked a bit. It lasted for a few nanokliks before he looked at Bee seriously. “Bumblebee.”

“Mm?” Bee looked at up from his sparkling, frowning at Ratchet’s serious look. “What?”

“Kid, look.” Ratchet shifted a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “Considerin’ all that’s happened n’ much as we don’t like it… Prime n’ I had a talk n’… well.” The medic looked uncomfortable for a bit before sighing and looking Bee straight in his optics. “… You n’ yer sparklin’ aren’t allowed to leave the ship.”

* * *

“He did _what?!_ ”

[ _He grabbed one of my tools n’ chucked it at my helm._ ] Ratchet growled, looking irritated with a cloth pressed against the side of his helm. [ _After that, he ran to his room with the sparklin’ n’ hasn’t come out since._ ]

Optimus sighed heavily, shoulders slumping heavily. He figured Bee wouldn’t like the news of being stuck on the ship, but he hadn’t thought he would react like _this_. “He knows this is for the better right? That staying on the ship is for the safety and wellbeing for them both?”

[ _Oh he knows very well about that. He took that part of the news well. It’s the part when he learned that Blitzwing couldn’t come see the sparkling that got him all mad. Kid wasn’t too happy to learn that we couldn’t take the risk of letting him out or bringin’ Blitzwing here ta see her._ ]

Optimus nodded his helm, seeing the problem now. “I see. Well, we kind of figured that he wouldn’t like that part. Blitzwing didn’t like the news much either.”

[ _Really? N’ how did he take it?_ ]

“Not well.” Optimus spared a glance to the corner of the room behind the computer screen. Blitzwing was laid out on the ground with the rest of the team standing by him, curled up in a ball hugging his stabilizers with a sad look on his faceplate that Sari exclaimed that it reminded her of a kicked puppy. A kicked, sad, lost, out in the cold wet rain, starving puppy… should ex-Decepticon’s be even capable of looking like sad puppies? “Better than Bumblebee, but not all that better.”

Ratchet huffed, shaking his helm a bit. [ _Typical, can’t even accept what’s best for his own kid._ ]

“ _Entschuldigung!_ Du bist kein Vater, der ihr Funkeln noch nicht gesehen hat und in ihrer Not nicht für deine Geliebten da ist! Ich habe das Recht, traurig zu sein!” Blitzwing screamed out a loud whine, earning confused looks from the team.

“… right, so. Ratchet, I want you to keep monitoring Bumblebee and the sparkling. I don’t know what Megatron plans to do, but that ship is the safest place for them right now.”

Ratchet nodded his helm, ending the call there. When the screen turned black, Optimus headed over to the rest of the group, looking down at Blitzwing with a frown. Now, what were they going to do with Blitzwing?


	30. Weak (SwinLock)

In the many stellar cycles that Lockdown had known Swindle, there were many words he would use to describe the bot, mostly to the side everyone saw him in. Other bots could call him a cheapskate, scruple pincer, credit grabber, sleazy sales bot. Which was mostly true because that was what he was in his profession. Even to him when they were doing business together, though he came up with more creative insults to call the arms dealer. His personal favorite being bright eyed optic black market money making arms dealer brick head bot.

Swindle **_hated_** that one, which only prompted Lockdown to use it more out in public. It was a riot to see Swindle get all flustered and irritated by that name when other bots were around to hear it. They weren’t big on any pet names when this thing that happened between started, but insults didn’t count and they insulted each other very often.

In private though, he saw a softer, sweeter, quieter side to Swindle that rare few bots would ever got to see. And Swindle hardly let that side show to anyone he didn’t deeply trust with it. That side was soft, kinder, whispering words of sweetness and care that Lockdown never thought the bot was capable of. But Swindle was a bot full of surprises and never lost his interesting demeanor.

Lockdown rather liked that about him. Swindle may be a bit of a sleaze, but he did know how to keep things interesting. And even after stellar cycles of knowing each other, Lockdown still didn’t have the entire grasp of Swindle’s full personality and secrets.

When they were alone, Swindle often spoke in a quiet tone, speaking soft words to Lockdown when they laid on his berth after a long solar cycle. Swindle would sometimes grab his remaining servo, tracing over the seams of the joints with his thick large digits, speaking whatever was on his mind in quiet soft tones. Lockdown would call it a far cry from cuddling, but he found it quite relaxing whenever Swindle did it.

He wasn’t good with soft kind words, yet the gesture seemed to work just fine without them.

Swindle’s servos were bigger than his own servo, so it gave him more room to slowly drag on digit over the seams and lines in almost a delicate manner he wasn’t normally capable of. When he did this, Swindle often mocked him a little about it before falling into recharge against Lockdown's chest, hugging the larger bot close to him. Lockdown found it quite useful to shut the merchant up when he talked too much for the hunter’s liking or relax the bot when he started stressing out.

Another thing bots rarely saw Swindle in was his weakest, something the merchant tried to keep hidden and pretend that it didn’t exist in him. To Swindle, weakness was a horrible flaw and damaging to his image and business. The bot kept himself on a high pedestal, keeping the spotlight on his smiling face and shining personality that made others turn and gawk at such display and keeping the power he held in his tight grasp. He rarely ever let anything get him down or shove him off the throne he made for himself in his own world, carrying himself high above the others.

But when he was alone, that was another thing.

Others could see him as a bot who never let anything get him down from power, Lockdown would see him as a bot who carried too much emotional baggage inside him.

The first time he had seen that side of Swindle, the bot tried to play it off and bribe him to keep quiet. It was the first time Lockdown turned down free mods from Swindle, the first crack in the arm's dealer's large façade, and maybe the start of this whole… ‘thing’ between them. After that, he started seeing more and more of the side Swindle hid from others, the side that he didn’t want to acknowledge or admit was there.

It took a bit of probing and many rare soft nights until Swindle felt safe enough to show that bit of himself more and more to Lockdown that he felt comfortable in showing the hunter. Swindle was always uncertain showing that weakness to someone like Lockdown, but it showed a great amount of trust built up between them over the stellar cycles.

They both saw sides to each other that they refused to show to everyone else. The bad, the ugly… and the weak.

Weak.

That wasn’t a word Lockdown would use to describe Swindle. Sure he wasn’t a strong fighter, but Swindle was far from being weak. The bot had an iron will of steel that didn’t budge, and a hard streak of stubbornness to boot too. Something Lockdown found irritating at time while also impressed how a small bot like Swindle could have such a large stubborn personality to match his avaricious schemes.

Weak.

Swindle was far from weak. If anything, he was much stronger than he looked. The bot had been through a lot in his life, something Lockdown secretly admired about him. Even when he was beaten down, Swindle just popped back with his money grabbing smile on his face with a new plan in mind.

Something he wished he could see on Swindle’s faceplate right now.

Lockdown had cut it lucky making that risky stop to get some much needed justice on **that _bot_ **to get Swindle to his associate in time. He knew it had been idea dumb going after the assassin first before getting Swindle help, but he couldn’t control his anger knowing Ludicrous was still online and living after what he did to the merchant. But in doing so had really run the risk of time on Swindle’s life.

It had been a close call, too close for his liking, but he managed to get Swindle help in time. His associate had been none too pleased by his sudden arrival in the dead of night but they got down to business once they learned of Swindle’s unemerged sparkling still inside him. Though they kept him out of the room while they worked. It was tedious waiting for any news while they worked on Swindle, but in the end it had been worth it. Swindle had a near scrape with permanent offlining, but the stubborn bot held on and pulled through… a bit.

Despite their best efforts, his associate could only do so much to keep Swindle online. It would take time to fix and replaced his damaged circuitry, and some of those parts were rare and very fragile. His associate could fix a few of them with ready parts, but the rest needed to be made from scratch to replace the old ones.

So now it was another waiting game.

Waiting for the spare parts to be built and for Swindle’s health to improve.

Lockdown didn’t really like waiting. Didn’t have the patience for it and would rather be doing something else than sitting around doing nothing. It was like a bad itch that grew irritating the longer he tried to ignore it.

Swindle liked doing nothing a lot. From counting money, relaxing by the shorelines, or reading a story on a datapad, the mech knew the key definition of doing nothing. Often than not, he tried getting Lockdown in on the activities as well even though the mercenary kept telling him he didn’t do any form of doing nothing other than recharging.

Now for once Lockdown was forced to nothing but wait, sitting by the merchant’s side slowly tracing the tip of his digit inside Swindle’s large servo in patters and shapes. He tried to keep his optics on Swindle’s face or his own servo, avoiding looking at the merchant’s chest that was wide open for everything inside to be seen. Thin tubes and wires hocked up to special machines were connected to the inside Swindle’s inner machinery, the main key keeping his damaged insides online and functioning.

If it were some other bot, Lockdown wouldn’t mind seeing the exposed insides of another bot. He was a mercenary after all, something like this wouldn’t bug him in the slightest. However this bot was _Swindle_.

There was a big difference seeing some other bots insides to a bot he was close to laid out with their chest open like some science experiment. It felt wrong in so many ways.

His optics landed on a thin tube filled with blue glowing liquid, following the line to the spark chamber where the merchant’s spark laid inside beating slowly. The pale purple was mixed with the blue liquid being fed through the tube. He wasn’t sure what the liquid was made of, but it seemed to be helping Swindle as he could see most of his natural color coming back.

Lockdown’s optics narrowed as the small brownish red spark wobble inside Swindle’s spark.

Still beating, still alive.

The hunter didn’t know where the small spark was lucky or just plain stubborn. He didn’t enjoy it too much that it had survived along with the mech, but it had been the ticket to getting Swindle the help he needed. And he really didn’t want to deal with telling Swindle that his kid didn’t survive. Mech had a hidden soft spot for sparklings that he didn't like other's knowing about.

He watched it bob up and down before wobbly moving inside the giant spark it was housed in, moved down deeper till it was out of the hunter’s sight. With a snort, Lockdown went back to staring at Swindle’s face. He looked peaceful, and still rather good looking if one didn’t focus on how horrible he looked at the moment. His focus turned to Swindle’s optics, feeling a small bit of guilt at seeing them both closed.

It had been a couple of solar cycles since Swindle had opened his optics, and Lockdown was starting to miss seeing them. Big, wide, and expressive, they were by far the most captivating feature on the mech anyone could ever see. Maybe it was why Lockdown liked them so much. You could tell a lot about a bout just by looking straight into their optics, and Swindle could always show what his mood was just by his optics alone.

In the past Swindle found him staring into those optics, entranced by the wide vibrant color and that slit-like pupil more times than the hunter would like to admit. And just like good old Swindle scheming fashion, the bot had taken the chance with using his optics against Lockdown to get him to buy more of his weapons and wares, though it rarely ever worked. It was still a little fun to see Swindle using his looks against him to get what he wanted, and Lockdown had to admit he did like the small shows Swindle put on just from him.

But he guessed that’s all it was. Just a show. And nothing else.

Lockdown sighed, shifting his gaze away from Swindle’s face to his servo. It always amazed Lockdown how large Swindle’s servos were compared to the mercenary’s remaining one. They were large, wide, complete with thick digits that had the hunter wondering how Swindle could grab anything with those thick servos yet the merchant could grab anything with no problem with these thick appendages.

His digit traced around the pattern in Swindle’s palm, wondering if it was just for show or something else when he spotted one of those thick digits twitch. Lockdown was quick to dismiss it as a reflex, but then he saw it twitch again. Moving his view from the servo to Swindle’s face, he saw the merchant’s face scrunching a bit.

Getting up to his peds, Lockdown moved closer to Swindle, looking at him carefully. “… Swindle?” He quietly spoke, inching closer to Swindle’s face. “Swin? Swi—”

**_CLANG_ **

Lockdown’s world spun for a moment, reeling back with pain in his jaw. It took him a moment to clear his processor before looking back at Swindle. His burning red optics meet the gaze of Swindle’s confused unfocused pale purple.

Swindle lowered his servo, releasing it from the fist he put it in and staring at Lockdown a moment. His pupils were dilated to large round circles, staring right at Lockdown with unblinking focus. Almost in a trance like state. Lockdown frowned a bit, happy seeing Swindle awake, though it was clear the bot was not all there at the moment. Shifting closer, Lockdown waved his servo in front of Swindle faceplate.

Swindle’s optics followed the servo, rocking his helm side to side as he followed the appendage before something clicked inside his helm, blinking his optics and pupils returning back to their normal slits. He sat there a moment looking straight ahead before shaking his helm and letting out a small groan. “Primus… what hit me?”

A smirk played across Lockown’s face, moving back to give Swindle some space. “Well, I wouldn’t say hit. More like feelin’ an orbital cycle slag.”

Swindle glared at him a bit, narrowing his optics at the hunter before looking around. “… where are we?”

“Remember that bot I told ya ‘bout?” Lockdown crossed his arms, sparing a glance at the room they were in. “The one who I knew who could help ya?”

Swindle looked back at him with a slight frown. “The… one who lives like a hermit away from every other bot?”

“Yep, were deep in one of their hidden rooms.”

“Hidden rooms?” Swindle looked around, gazing at the interior of the place. Lockdown could understanding the growing awe and wonder on Swindle’s face as it did have that mystic feel to it. Lockdown was never one to believe in the super natural or strange, but his interests were peeked at his associate’s odd taste in designs and weird trinkets that put his own collection to shame.

It was like a whole other world inside a tiny room.

“Yep. This is jus’ one of ‘em.” Lockdown gazed back at Swindle, meeting his confused wonder filled optics. Their gaze were locked on each other, taking in the sight of each other for what seemed like an eternity before Swindle blinked and moved his helm away with a cough.

“S-So.” Swindle glanced down at himself, grabbing one of the tubes with an unimpressed gaze. “I-Is the poison gone?”

Lockdown frowned at Swindle’s blasé question. Though he didn’t miss the small stutter in his voice. “Yeah. It’s gone. Though, ya ain’t out of danger yet.”

Swindle turned his helm sharply at Lockdown. “What? Ow.” Swindle rubbed his helm groaning, his body shaking. Lockdown stepped closer, putting his servo on Swindle’s back, keeping the merchant from falling over.

“Most of yer innards got damaged pretty bad, Swin. Bad ta the point that they need replacin’.”

“… slag.”

“Ya can say that again.”

“ _Slag_.”

Lockdown looked at Swindle a moment before letting out a small guffaw that turned into chuckles that had Swindle joining in with his own giggles. It lasted for a bit before both mechs calmed down, venting a bit.

Swindle cracked an optic open at Lockdown, smiling a bit. It was soon gone too soon to Lockdown’s liking, turning his focus to his spark. Swindle invented slightly, staring at his spark. With a shaking servo, he lifted it up to his spark chamber, hovering over with growing dread on his faceplate.

“It’s still there.”

Swindle spared a glance at Lockdown. “It’s still there.” Lockdown repeated, watching as Swindle stared at him a moment longer before looking back at his spark. A few tense moments passed before the small spark came into view behind the tinted color glass. Swindle’s optics widened, a small smile creeping up on his face, letting out a soft sigh.

“Oh thank Primus.” Swindle sighed, leaning against Lockdown. The action took Lockdown by surprise, freezing a moment before relaxing and hugging Swindle a bit. They both watched the small spark wobble and bob inside Swindle’s spark against the blue liquid, comfortably content for the quiet moment.

Lockdown spared a glanced at Swindle’s face. The merchant looked relaxed, his optics filled to the brim with happiness and relief staring at the small spark within him. The hunter wanted to ask Swindle who the sire was, but held his glossa. There was a good chance that Swindle would get upset and try to leave the first moment he could get on his peds, leaving Lockdown behind with nothing but empty information. He needed to play his cards right and be careful in his next moves in getting that information _and_ getting back in special ties with Swindle.

A thought occurred to him, reaching into his subspace with his hook and pulling out a card with an ace of hearts on it. He held it up to Swindle, who blinked a bit before his optics widened with recognition flashing through them.

“Huh. I was wondering where that went.” The arm’s dealer smirked, taking the card off the hook and the deck out of the hidden compartment in his arm.

“What where ya doin’ back on that planet?”

Swindle shrugged, sliding the card back in the deck and started shuffling them. “Don’t know. I saw it appearing on the map and… well, I don’t know.” He smiled, doing a bit of flourish in shuffling the deck. It still baffled Lockdown how one with thick digits could do cards tricks so fluently without flaw. “Guess I wanted to go down memory lane or something. Wasn’t much to see there, and the casino was still destroyed. Which was a mighty pity.”

Lockdown snorted. “A thousand stellar cycles n’ it’s still in ashes.”

“I know right? And it wasn’t one of my favorite ones too!” The merchant huffed, taking one card out and flicking right smack dab back in the deck. “All those games and bots to gamble were lost thanks to those drunks! I was having a grand time there showing off my skills!”

“Skills? Ya mean all those tricks n’ cheats ya pulled ta win?”

“Hey!” Swindle pointed a digit at Lockdown’s face. “It’s not cheating if no one catches you doing it.” Lockdown chuckled, watching Swindle work his magic with the deck in his servos. He kind of missed seeing him doing those card tricks of his.

“Ya know.” Lockdown grabbed one of the cards from the deck, catching Swindle’s attention on him. “It’s gonna be a while before yer new parts are ready, so until they’re done, yer stuck here.”

Swindle looked thoughtful a moment before frowning with a deep scowl. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He glared a bit at the cards. “And Luc—I mean, _Ludicrous_ , blew up my ship too. So I don’t even have ship anymore.”

“Welll.” Lockdown fiddled with the card in his servo, flipping it between his digits. “I jus’ happen ta have a ship.” He held the card between his thumb and foredigit. “But it’s gonna have ta coast ya fer a ride.”

Swindle looked at him with shock, one that nearly made Lockdown chuckle by the sheer size of the merchant’s wide optics. Narrowing his optics Swindle made a grab for the card, but Lockdown held it up and out of Swindle’s reach. After a few failed tries, Swindle huffed irritably, crossing his arms over his exposed chest. “… and what price are you demanding?”

“Oh, the usual.” Lockdown looked at the card back to front, then looked at Swindle with a smirk. “A weapon or two with one of ‘em special mods ya hidden on ya. N’.” He leaned closer, looking right into Swindle’s optics. “You show me how ya managed ta do all those tricks with those servos of yours.”

There was silence for a beat as Swindle stared at him. His narrowed optics slowly grew wide. The corner of his intake twitched before pulling into that knowing smirk that completed his business bot look.

“Well.” Swindle rubbed his knuckles on his shoulder. “That’s a hefty price you’re asking there my fine fellow. You sure there isn’t a way I could lower it to a reasonable amount?”

Lockdown’s smirk grew, placing the card on Swindle’s out stretched servo. “ _Maybe_. I might be generous ta lower it if ya managed ta teach me one of those fancy tricks of yers.”

“It might be a little difficult with that hook of yours, buuut I might just know a few tricks or two that you could use.”

“Really? N’ how would that work?”

“Very simple actually! You see back seven thousand stellar cycles ago I ran into this bot with more limbs than a spider! And let me tell you, that bot was a cheater! Even bigger than me in both literal and physical sense!” Swindle began his tale as Lockdown listened and watched the small show the merchant was putting on as he spoke, feeling he was on the right path to finding the mysterious sire.


	31. Night Monster (ShockBlurr)

_I am fear. I slip through the toughest defenses and barriers._

Dark shadows danced across buildings, covering the alleyways in darkness where no light could penetrate within. Though Cybertron was a bright world, not every corner of the planet was filled with light.

As such, when night time rolled around, some of the light on the planet dimmed a bit so residents could recharge peacefully. But that only made the shadows grow, and miss seeing figures walking inside them slip from one patch of darkness to the next. Any bystander who thought they saw something only turned their helm and saw stillness, shrugging and immediately dismissing it.

Completely missing a large figure moving in the shadows once they were sure no one saw them move.

_I am fear. I am in enemy territory looking for something._

Cybertron had many buildings. Most were used for some great purpose or some important meaning, but some of the buildings were homes to bots. The taller buildings were filled with rooms and apartments that housed many Autobots inside them, but only one had something that held the reason why they were there.

One of the tall buildings housed two elite Autobots, both from the Cybertron Intelligence sector. One was a top spy and the other a double agent. Neither were what they were looking for.

_I am fear. I never stop till I have what I want._

They were cunning, if not a master of skill and deceit. Their skills had made them legends, one of uncertain myth and history that others praised or tried to forget. But how could one forget if they were constantly reminded of the danger they possessed?

Up they climbed the building, staying in the shadows and staying undetected. The double agent hadn’t even notice them yet. _Pathetic_.

_I am fear. I am in the room._

They made quick work of the locks in the windows, slipping in the room without detection. Step by quiet step, they spared no time looking around the room, heading down the hallway. Briefly they stopped by one door, listening for any sound on the other side.

Nothing but the quiet thumbs of sparks in recharge.

Completely unaware of their presence inside their home.

Moving on, they went down further in the hall till they came to a certain door. Sending a code through a private link, it opened by their command.

The room was small, the ground littered with toys and datapads that would alert any bot of their presence if they stepped inside. However, they were going to step inside. They were going to climb inside.

Claws grabbed the wall, securing a tight grip they use to grab and crawl against. Some would say they were like an animal doing this, but they hardly cared if it did what they needed it to.

Soon they were hanging over their prize, watching the tiny chest rise and fall with each tiny vent, holding a toy close to their chest.

_I am fear. I found what I want._

Reaching down, they grabbed the young mechling, covering their intake and made a dash out the room, down the hallway, in the room and out the open window where they climbed up to the top of the building, setting the mechling down.

And immediately got tackled into a hug by said mechling.

“Si-Si!”

They chuckled, returning the hug to their youngest grandling. “Hello little warrior.” They hugged each other for a moment before pulling back, taking a good look at their grandling. “Hassssss SSSSSSShockerr gotten bigger? SSSSSShockerr ssssssseem to have gotten bigger lasssssst time Ironmisssst wassssssss here.”

“Uh huh! I got lots bigger!” Shockrr smiled as his great-grand sire set him down, gazing up at her with stars in his optics. “Carrier says I might end up be big like Sire some solar cycle!”

“Ironmisssst hope ssssssssso! After all, SSSSShockrr hasssss great Deccccepticon lineage insssssside SSSSSShocker!” She poked Shockrr on the cheek, making the little bitlet giggle. “How are creatorsssssss doing thesssssse ccccccyclesssss anyway?”

“They fine.” Shockrr sat down close to the edge of the building with his grand sire sitting down next to them. “They work a lot and don’t see me lots anymore, but they play with me when they do.”

“That’ssssss good to hear. Ironmisssssst isssss happy they care for SSSSShockrr. What elsssssse isssss new?”

“Uummmm… oh! I gots ta spend time with Uncle Bee the last couple of solar cycles! He even did that singy thing he does when I asked him!”

“SSSSSSingy thing?”

“Yeah! The singy thing!” Shockrr threw his arms up, smiling at Ironmist’s confused face. “It’s a thing that he does when singing! I tried doing like him but it doesn’t work.”

“What’sssss thisssss sssssssing thing?”

“Well, when Uncle Bee sings, light comes out of his intake.” Shockrr motioned to his own intake, waving his servo around as he explained. “Sometimes its bubbles, or lines. I never know, but it’s always cool to see!”

Ironmist narrowed their three optics a bit, humming. “And thissss uncle Bee, doesssss thisss light make ssssshapesssss when he ssssssingsssss?”

“Yeah! Really cool shapes! Like squares or ships or even bots!” Shockrr smiled, missing the way Ironmist hummed and rubbed their claw under their chin.

“Could he be…” Shaking their helm, Ironmist turned back to their grandling. “Anything elsssse Ironmissssst sssshould know? Ironmisssst misssssesssss a lot of SSSSShockrr’ssss life and wantssss to be caught up on it.”

Shockrr kicked his stabilizers, twisting his thumbs around each other. He was silent a moment before looking up at his great-grand sire. “… my creators want ta send me ta school.”

“Really? That’sssss great!” Ironmist smiled, though it didn’t last when she saw the uncertainty on Shockrr’s face. “What’sssss wrong SSSSShockrr?”

“… I don’t know if I like school.” Shockrr admitted, looking down at his servos.

“Hassss SSSSSShockrr gone already?”

“No.” The young bitlet shook his helm. “I haven’t gone now. Buuut… Carrier and Sire didn’t seem to like the idea of me go to school.”

“And why’sssssss that?”

Shockrr shrugged. “I donno. They just don’t.”

Ironmist stared at her great-grandling, studying him a bit before humming. “They mussssst be worried. For SSSSShockrr.”

“Me?” Shockrr looked up at his great-grand sire. “Why me?”

“SSSShockrr isssss going to ssssschool, where creatorsssss won’t be able to ssssssee SSSSSShockrr. Worried that SSSSShockrr could be overwhelmed by new thingsssss.” Ironmist leaned closer to her great-grandling. “Issssss SSSSShockrr overwhelmed by thought of sssschool?”

“Na-uh!” Shockrr shook his helm at high speed, making his great-grand sire laugh a bit. “I’m excited!”

“Oh? And why’ssss that?”

“I get to meet other bots like me!” Shockrr exclaimed, throwing his arms up with a wide smile on his faceplate. “And Cliff says I gets to learn a lots of cool stuff there too! Like Carrier and Sire!”

“Ah! Ironmisssst ssssseessss! Ironmissst ssssseesssss!” Ironmist smiled as Shockrr stood to his peds, striking a small pose.

“I no afraid! I’m brave and smart like my creators! I show I not scared of school!”

Ironmist clapped her servos together, smiling brightly at her grandling’s bold declaration. “That’sssss Ironmisssst’sssss grandling!” She happily scooped Shockrr up, spinning around a few times as both bots giggled and laughed.

Once she was done spinning, Ironmist placed a small kiss on Shockrr’s helm. “SSSSShockrr issss a brave sssssparkling. Issss good to be brave and face many thingssss in life.”

Shockrr giggled, snuggling up against Ironmist. “I love you Si-Si!”

“SSSSSi-SSSSSi lovesssss SSSSShockrr too.” Ironmist said, climbing down the building back to the window and setting her grandling inside. “SSSSSee SSSSShockrr next sssssstellar cccccycle.” She reached into her subspace, pulling out a small box. “And happy emergence day. Keep quiet about vissssit?”

“Yes Si-Si!” Shockrr nodded enthusiastically, taking the box and waving as Ironmist started climbing down the building back into the shadows.

_I am fear. I have possibly learned something interesting from my great-grandling._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this going to be the last ShockBlurr chapter for a while folks! Don't worry they'll come back, I'm just going to focus on Blitzbee and SwinLock for a few chapters till Halloween! I have something special planned that day~ Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Have a good day!


	32. Small (BlitzBee)

In all his life, Bumblebee was constantly reminded how short he was compared to other bots. Some in mocking tones and some in jests, and he hated it!

Yes he was short and yes he was tiny standing next to other bots, but that wasn’t his fault! It was just stunted growth! The doctor he used to see claimed that he was lucky enough to be growing at all! Even Ratchet was surprised when he first examined Bee for the first time to find out he was a stunted bot rather than a mini-bot.

The doctor was sure it was because his carrier had extracted him out of the chamber too early that he was smaller than the average size new emerged sparkling. In fact, he was the smallest sparkling in the records to this very date! And lucky enough to have survive to adulthood.

But this tiny little being, this little sparkling, it baffled Bee how BIG he was compared to her.

To her peds and stabilizers, from her chest to her servos and her helm, she was… she was just so _tiny._

Bee had seen a few sparklings in his life, mostly bullies who shoved him away when he tried to be friends when he was younger, but she was the first real new spark he had ever laid optics on. And she was _tiny_.

Her arms were tiny, her peds were tiny. Even her digits were super tiny! Bumblebee couldn’t get over how small she was! Not even Sari was this small! The only thing that was sorta not tiny about her were her big bright blue optics that had opened two solar cycles ago. Bright soft blue, just like his.

It was surreal seeing a Cybertronian being completely smaller than him. And she was _his_ sparkling!

“You’re so small.” Bumblebee whispered, placing a single digit in one of her tiny servos. “So so small.” He smiled sweetly as his sparkling beeped and began nibbling on his digit. He chuckled, lifting the sparkling up and pressing their helms together gently. “And so cute too.”

She blinked at him, staring into his optics with curious interest. Ratchet had told him that she wouldn’t be able to see things clearly for another couple of solar cycles before her systems fully developed. For now, she could only see colorful blurs and blobs.

The little sparkling babbled, reaching her servos out towards Bee’s face. Bee’s smile grew, nuzzling their helms gently. The femmling beeped, patting Bee’s face with her servos. Her little digits fanned across her carrier’s face, feeling the smooth metal under her touch that was so foreign and new to her. Everything was blurry and unclear to her, and she didn’t understand the concept of colors yet so she didn’t know the bright something she was gazing at were her carrier’s love filled blue optics.

Bumblebee laughed as the sparkling grabbed the corner of his intake, pulling on it curiously. She certainly was a strong for a sparkling and defiantly full of life in her. All good signs to Bumblebee that his sparkling was healthy. “You’re defiantly going to be a servoful when you get older.” Bee chuckled, removing the femmling’s servo carefully from his intake.

The sparkling babbled, sticking her small servo in her intake and began chewing on it. Bumblebee hugged her close, adoring his small spark with love he never knew he had in himself to give to others beside Blitzwing.

Blitzwing.

His smile fell at the thought of his mechfriend.

Poor Blitzwing. The triple changer wanted so badly to be here with him and their sparkling, but was stuck back at the base due to Optimus's orders, missing out on important bonding moments with their kid. It hurt that Blitzwing couldn’t be here with his family and it hurt more that Bee couldn’t send him any pictures or videos of the sparkling because Ratchet had confiscated his datapad and Blitzwing’s was in pieces thanks to Megatron.

The thought of the warlord made Bee shudder, hugging his sparkling protectively. Megatron knew about Blitzwing’s secret relationship with an Autobot, and what was worse he knew about their sparkling. That spelled major danger for Bee’s young spark, and he never wanted that. He never wanted any danger to fall on his little femmling.

 _Really should have thought this through more carefully_. Bee thought with a heavy sigh, gazing down at his sparkling. She had discarded trying to eat her own servo and now tried eating Bee’s thumb instead, gazing back up at her carrier with innocent intent.

A warm smile came back on Bee’s face, caressing his femmling’s helm. She was so cute. Almost too precious for this world he had brought her in to. Bee only wished that he hadn’t brought her into the world during a war with the threat of an angry Decepticon leader over his helm.

But what was done was done and there was no going back. Though Bee wished he had been a little more careful back then. If he had, this whole mess wouldn’t have happened. But he didn’t regret having this little bot in his life one bit. It was his mess he made, not hers.

He lifted her up, placing a quick kiss on her helm. The femmling let out a tiny squeak, waving her little servos around. “You are just so cute.” Bee cooed at his sparkling. “I promise to keep you safe from any dangers of the universe.”

“That’s a pretty big promise kid.” Bumblebee jumped, swerving his helm around to the doorway. Ratchet stood against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “N’ it’s one ya know ya can’t keep.”

Bee frowned, hugging his sparkling close to his chest. “Well, at least I can try keeping her safe.”

“Try ya can do, but ya can’t protect her from everythin’ kid.” Ratchet sighed. “We all want ta protect the thin’s most precious ta us, but there are thin’s we just can’t protect them from.”

Bee was silent, studying Ratchet carefully and mulling over his words. “… yeah.” He turned his helm away from Ratchet, looking down at the sparkling in his arms. “I guess you’re right.”

“Course I’m right. Jus’ speakin’ logic here.” Ratchet huffed, entering the room. Bee tensed as the old bot got closer to him, shifting his sparkling out of the other’s view when he stood next to the mini-bot. Ratchet gave him a pointed stare at his action. Instead of speaking, he just shook his helm and grabbed Bee’s arm gently.

“What are you doing?” Bee asked nervously, his optics widening as Ratchet took out a syringe. “U-Uh Doc Bot? Wh-What are you doing?” The scout tried scooting away, but Ratchet held on his arm firmly.

“Relax will ya kid? It’s jus’ a booster shot.”

“Whoa whoa whoa! That’s too big of a shot for a sparkling!”

“Not for her! It’s for you!”

“Me?!” Bumblebee’s spark raced, eyeing the syringe filled with pink liquid in clear nervous fear.

“Yeah _you_.” Ratchet huffed. “Did ya think I’m jus’ goin’ ta forget ‘bout the whole faulty bad nanites thin’ n’ let it slip by me?”

“They haven’t caused me any problems before!” Bee tried struggling his arm out of Ratchet’s hold, but the medic held on tight. “An-and I feel fine! Really!

“Quit whinin’! Yours already does ‘nough of that ‘round here.”

“She’s not the one getting poked with a needle!” Bumblebee’s body started shaking as Ratchet brought the needle closer. 

Ratchet glared at the scout for a moment before his focus turned on the sparkling. Her bright blue optics were staring right at him, wondering who this new blob was. “… Ya got a name for her yet?”

Bee stopped struggling at Ratchet’s question. “What?”

“The sparklin’, ya got a name for her yet?”

“… oh. No.” Bee looked down at his sparkling. “Her name _was_ going to be Crimson Rose if her optics were red, like Blitzwing’s.” Ratchet huffed. “But it’s not much a fitting name for her now with her optics being blue like mine. Kind of sad that both of her optics turned out blue and not red. It would have fit her coloring quite well.”

“I still don’t understand how she’s more than one color.” Ratchet gazed at the mixed colors on Bee’s sparkling. She certainly was an optic catcher with those kaleidoscope of colors on her. The only part of her that wasn’t in bright colors was her faceplate, which was a greyish blue tint. “Not once have I ever seen or heard of a sparklin’ bein’ more than one solid color after emergence.”

“Well my sparkling just like’s to defy the odds. Don’t you?” Bee cooed at his sparkling, earning a little beep from her. “Yes you do, yes you—OW! Ratchet!”

“What? Ya were distracted.” Ratchet shrugged, injecting Bee with the shot. “Wasn’t goin’ ta miss the opportunity.”

Bee growled a bit, but said nothing as Ratchet finished giving him the injection.

“There. Now was that so hard?”

“You’re lucky my arms are busy holding a cute sparkling.” Bee muttered as Ratchet stepped away with a smirk.

“Heh. Come by the medbay in a megacycle for her daily checkup.” Ratchet turned and left the room, leaving Bee alone with his sparkling.

Bumblebee huffed, irritated by Ratchet’s sneaky work but it soon faded as his sparkling started babbling in beeps, nibbling on her servos as she stared up at her carrier. Bee smiled, hugging her sparkling close. “I really need to think up of a name for you.”

His little femmling beeped, making Bee chuckle and place a kiss on top of her helm.


	33. Deal Making (SwinLock)

Swindle was never a fan of staying still for too long.

The incident of being stuck in vehicle mode for solar cycles on end had installed a small sense of Merinthophobia in the bot. After he was freed from his self-prison, Swindle had stayed out of vehicle mode for as long as he was able to, keeping himself from staying still and refusing to stop unless he needed to recharge. When Lockdown caught wind of his embarrassing predicament, the hunter had laughed so hard that he literally fell over cackling at the misfortune that Swindle had to suffer through.

Though he never brought it up again after Swindle found out about his offered partnership to Prowl and refused to talk, look at, or do business with the mercenary for ten whole stellar cycles. It was the only time Swindle felt an amazing amount of jealously towards Lockdown at this partnership he had with some other bot and for Lockdown to learn how hard it was to earn Swindle’s forgiveness and get back on his good side. When Swindle held a grudge, he held on to it **tight**.

Still, Swindle couldn’t stand staying completely still for long hours at a time if some part of him wasn’t moving. He could managed sitting still if one of his peds was tapping on the floor, or his digits drumming on his arm. Even during business exchange, Swindle kept his body moving, learning long ago that bots tended to pay more attention if their optic were focused solely on the bot if there was something catching their attention. Just little sways of his servos or a tiny tilt of his helm was enough to have plenty of bots keep their focus on him.

But staying still for Primus knows for how long was very limiting on Swindle. So when the last piece of damaged machinery was replaced and he was good to go, Swindle bolted off of the table quickly as he could. Feeling his body stretch was relieving to the merchant, holding his arms over his helm and sighing with vigor.

Primus it felt good to be standing again!

Twisting his body a bit, Swindle reveled in the moment as he moved his stiff joints, marveling how he took mobility for granted till he registered the feeling of optics on him. A small glance to the side confirmed that Lockdown was staring at him, watching his every movement. Swindle ignored him, thinking the bot was only watching him because he hadn’t seen him move his body for quite some time. After giving proper thanks to Lockdown’s associate, the pair quietly boarded Lockdown’s ship and took off.

To where they were going, that was a secret Swindle didn’t like to share with other bots. Even with longtime partnerships and business associates, Swindle did not like sharing trade secrets to anyone else. Even if his life was in danger or bargained him for it, he would not budge.

“Home sweet home!” Swindle threw open the doors, stepping into the large building. It was a mess. Not as bad as the inside of Lockdown’s ship, but it was certainly bad to some extent. Normally, Swindle would have taken better care of the appearance of the places he owned, but this place was his own personal hide away place. Somewhere where he could go incognito for a bit when he was in real deep hot water.

Or to get a break from nosey customers.

Stepping inside, Swindle took a look around the place. Shelves and boxes were filled to the brim with parts and spared items of weapons and machinery he had collected over the stellar cycles stored along the walls. They were mostly all side projects, just something he would work on in his spare time or sold if some bot needed some parts for something.

Further back was blocked off by large heavy hanger doors, where Swindle kept his ships he used transportation. They weren’t too fancy, but they were well maintained and kept up to Swindle code. The back held three ships, though now he was down by one. Pity really, he liked that last one and nothing of personal value was salvageable from the wreck.

Which was a shame. He really liked that tree.

Turning on his heel, Swindle went to a door hidden behind some clutter, pushing it aside and inserting the password on the keyboard. It opened with a hiss, sliding open to a different room separated from the rest of the building. It was much cleaner and well organized than the rest of the building, as well as decorated with nothing but the best in luxury and design.

Only the best of the best was in this room, and Swindle liked keeping the best for himself.

A low whistle made Swindle turn his helm and look behind himself. “Been a while since I was here.” Lockdown looked around the room with interest as he stepped inside.

Swindle shrugged, smiling all the way as he stepped closer to a decked out refueling station. “Well you haven’t really stopped by for a while, and I managed to grab a few new things to spice up the place a bit.” He grabbed a couple of energon cubes from the storage container, one for Lockdown and two for himself, offering the cube out to the bounty hunter which he took with a grunt in thanks.

Smirking as he usually did, Swindle made his way over to the spare plush couch he kept here, plopping down on the soft fabric and sighed contently to be off his peds. For some reason, Swindle couldn’t stay standing for long megacycles at a time as his peds started to ach. He glanced over at Lockdown and patted a spot next to him.

Lockdown eyed the couch before venting deeply, going over and sitting down next to Swindle. Once comfortable, the hunter downed his energon and tossed the empty cube away. Swindle rolled his optics at the improper behavior, but said nothing about and instead opt to drinking his own energon slowly.

There was a moment of comfortable silence between them. Swindle felt some relative ease around the bounty hunter, feeling that old comfortable order they usually used to have fall back into place surrounding them. The merchant was almost sure nothing had changed between them, aside of the knowledge that he was carrying Lockdown’s sparkling inside him.

Swindle paused a moment at that thought. Right. He still hadn’t told Lockdown that the sparkling was his. With everything going on, it never crossed his processor. Taking a side glance at Lockdown, Swindle took in the hunter’s appearance.

Lockdown certainly was a sight to see. And not bad looking in Swindle’s option either. The mech certainly had a balance mystery and fear around him. Maybe that was what attracted Swindle to the dangerous bot in the first place. Lockdown was an even tempered bot most of the time when things were easy, but he was also scary force to be reckoned with when he was angry. Swindle had certainly walked along the edge of anger with the mech plenty of times in the past, though never over it.

Not till the whole sparkling thing happened. The merchant had no idea how to break it to Lockdown. He had only originally planned to go into hiding, having the sparkling in secret, and pretend he adopted the kid out of rare pity if anyone asked, but that all was ruined because of his stupid worry got the better control over his common sense to check on the small spark while still on the Death’s Head. And the end result was a very angry Lockdown, a broken optic, and a new found blossoming fear with a heavy threat of death over him and his developing sparkling if they ever crossed paths ever again.

If that didn’t give Swindle an insight of Lockdown’s view towards him now, he really didn’t know how he’ll react if the arm’s dealer told him the truth about the sparkling’s sire. Would Lockdown react in disgust? Hatred? Denial? Pretending to act calm then kill him when he least expected it? That last one sounded very much like something Lockdown would do.

Swindle shuddered, placing the empty cube aside and grabbed the second one. Instead of drinking it, he stared at the liquid inside. The pink life giving liquid sloshed around inside the cube, reflecting his purple optics back at him in a lighter pinkish hue.

Energon. That was how the whole thing started. It at least it started with a drink. Swindle remembered that solar cycle very well. A very fine loot and run shopping spree of the biggest score he hadn’t had in a long while.

Engex. Gallons of it. And boy of boy, was he feeling very lucky that solar cycle.

It could have been the rush of a successful steal or the eagerness to having a few drinks clouding his senses, but one way or another Swindle had commed Lockdown with a few goods to sell and a few bargains in mind. He knew Lockdown was a heavy drinker, though he tried to get the hunter on the lighter stuff now and then, and he knew Lockdown was just too weak to resist buying engex from his dear old pal Swindle. Plus, Swindle was feeling a bit lonely at the time and wanted to see the mech again. The mercenary hardly called him for anything but business these solar cycles.

What happened after that was the same old deal between them. Bargaining, deal swapping, weapon checking, sharing a drink to see if it was the real deal, taking another drink as they discussed final deals, and another, getting buzzed easily because Swindle was in **_NO WAY_** as heavy of a drinker like Lockdown, his emotions bubbling to the surface, remembering looking at Lockdown and thinking just how handsome he looked at the moment and a deep feeling of longing in his chest that needed to be filled before sliding up and clinging to the hunter like his life depended on it. He couldn’t remember what he said exactly to Lockdown, but he was sure it must have something flirty with deep wanting need in his tone because Lockdown had that certain familiar look in his optics that just screamed he knew where this was going and defiantly was more than willing to dance to this tune Swindle was singing to him.

The rest was the same old, but certainly never boring, history in Lockdown personal room. He certainly remembered needing help walking to his ship with his newly acquired currency added to his account afterwards. And it wasn’t till a few solar cycles later that he found out he took something else off that ship besides credits.

It wasn’t the best surprise in Swindle’s option. And if anything, it shouldn’t have happened. Would have saved him the trouble of getting on this emotion turmoil of a ride. But Swindle had always wanted a sparkling of his own. Mainly to have company around or a partner in his business, but he always thought he would adopt one since he never found the right partner and his favorite bot to recharge with was incapable of giving him such sparkling.

Or so they both thought.

Now Swindle had to deal with trying to keep himself online while Lockdown’s sparkling developed inside him, though throughout the whole process Swindle had run into a fair amount of trouble and almost been offlined more times than the last century. Clearly not his best track record up to date.

“So.” Swindle blinked, gazing over at Lockdown. The hunter’s face was neutral and his body was relaxed, yet Swindle could easily pick out the hidden reluctance from Lockdown. “We’ve got a bit of… thin’s ta discuses.”

Swindle narrowed his optics a bit. He didn’t like how Lockdown referred to this situation as a _thing_ , but could clearly see that Lockdown had something to say in the matter.

“Firstly bein’ this whole…” The hunter moved his servo around, seemingly looking for the right words to say next. After a moment, he gave up and sighed. “ _Sparklin’_ situation.”

Swindle hummed. He knew Lockdown would want to bring that up at some point. Though he was surprised the hunter waited this long to talk about it.

“Can’t say I’m too happy ‘bout it.” Lockdown turned his helm slightly, looking at Swindle with those red optics of his. “Though, can’t say I’m too surprised ‘bout it either. Ya do have a sort of thin’ fer sparklin’s.”

“One. That was a long time ago. Two. I just happened to be there. Three. I blame my old Autobot programing. And four. As much as I love the business that came with the war, I will not subject it to youths who shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” Swindle dropped his servo, glaring a bit at Lockdown. “And don’t use the excuse that you were paid to get rid of them, I gave you a better deal and you still got paid by your client in the end.”

“Only ‘cause ya took those sparklin’s n’ I lied ta my client ‘bout finishin’ the job.” Lockdown huffed.

Swindle shrugged, slipping on his energon. “You still got paid in the end.”

Lockdown vented heavily, leaning back against the cushions and offlining his optics. “… yeah. I did.” Silence surrounded them for a moment before the hunter’s optics came back online and gazed at Swindle’s chest area. “… when were ya gonna tell me ‘bout it?”

Swindle paused, side glancing at Lockdown for a few nanokliks before gazing back on his drink. He had thought about how things could have gone differently if he had broken the news to Lockdown in a more planned and careful way. How things could have been if he could have just told Lockdown the truth. But that always ended in a negative light and the nightmares certainly liked to remind him of how it happened in a twisted way.

So he just shrugged. “Don’t know… don’t know if there ever was a good way to tell you really.”

“… really?”

Swindle nodded. “The thought crossed my mind more than once when I found out, but none of it seem possible for a softer outcome. And considering how you reacted when you found out…” His voice drifted off, trying hard not to remember the pain that had exploded in his optic and telling himself that Lockdown was sitting beside him and not standing over him with a look of death incarnate all over his face.

He spared a glance at Lockdown when he noticed how quiet he was being, finding an odd sight of the hunter gazing on the ground with a hard regret filled look in his narrowed optics, and for a moment Swindle felt some sort of weight lifting off his back slightly. But it dashed when Lockdown’s optics widened, turning his helm to look at him. “Wait. Ya said ‘found out’.”

Swindle swallowed a thick lump in the back of his intake, nodding his helm.

“Swindle, ya don’t jus’ ‘find out’ ‘bout these thin’s.” Lockdown sat up straighter, his optics narrowing in a more studying gaze. “In fact yer hardly out of the circle of news n’ thin’s goin’ on ‘round ya. Ya always got a plan in mid when ya see fit n’ ya always come up with somethin’ _on the dot_ when the opportunity shows itself. Yer hardly ever surprised at what’s goin’ on uless… _unless ya didn’t plan on it_.”

Swindle averted his gaze from Lockdown, gripping the cube tightly.

“… Swindle.” The merchant flinched, slowly gazing up at Lockdown. “That sparklin’ wasn’t planned. Was it?”

“… I uh… d-don’t know what you’re—”

“ _Swin._ ”

“Okay! Fine! No!” Swindle threw his arms up in defeat, knowing that tone Lockdown used with that nickname. “No, I didn’t plan to get sparked. No, I had no idea I was till I saw it one solar cycle. Which I might add was NOT a fun surprise for me. No, I had no intention to get sparked, nor was I prepared to get sparked and have this kid and believe me I just want this whole rocket of a ride to be over and down with soon okay?!”

Swindle slumped forward, heaving a bit to get his racing spark to calm down. Inventing, Swindle pinched the area between his optics and sighed. “… I really didn’t plan to get sparked Lockdown, really. I just… happened and…” He waved his servos about and only then just remembering the cube in his hold. Empty of energon. Looking around, Swindle let lose a colorful string of curses under his tone at the energon splattered around the room.

“… so.” Swindle turned his focus back on Lockdown, watching him rub his chin with his hook. “Ya didn’t plan fer this.” Swindle shook his helm. “Ya didn’t know ‘bout it till ya found out.” Swindle shook his helm again. “N’ ya weren’t plannin’ nor prepared ta get sparked when the whole thin’ happened.” Once again Swindle shook his helm. Lockdown was silent for a moment before sighing himself, leaning back against the couch.

“So I can take it that this was probably a result of some business deal with one of yer clients that probably involved with some high grade drinks n’ ya somehow forgot ta bolt yer gestation tank close n’ wounded up rechargin’ with the mech which resulted in ya bein’ sparked up by accident then?”

Swindle pursed his lips. Well, that was one way to say it. Lockdown got it all down right mostly, except the so called client was sitting next to him and Swindle purposely left his tank unbolted on his way to Lockdown’s ship thinking he couldn’t get sparked up by the sterile bot and wounded up having a little surprise passenger in his spark when he left. He wasn’t that much of an idiot.

Still, it was good enough as any guess Lockdown could make. Swindle nodded his helm which prompted Lockdown to sigh again and rub his face. “ _Unbelievable_ Swin. N’ here I thought ya were smarter than that!”

“Well excuse me for not seeing this outcome earlier before it happened!” Swindle huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lockdown shook his helm. “Well, no use in regrettin’ it now.” He eyed Swindle a moment. “… What do ya plan ta do now?”

“… Honestly? That’s still unknown, even to me.” Swindle eased back against the couch, placing the empty cube next to the other and rubbing his chest with his free servo. “Mostly I plan to rise the kid here since it’s probably the safest place I can raise them without any trouble and—”

“Okay wait a moment.” Lockdown interrupted. “Ya plan ta what?”

“To rise them. I’m not giving this sparkling up Lockdown.”

Lockdown stared at him with an unreadable look on his faceplate. “… you.” He pointed at Swindle. “Are seriously thinkin’ ‘bout raisin’ a sparklin’ that ya accidentally got sparked up with one of yer clients all on yer own.” Swindle nodded his helm. “… good Primus Swindle.”

“Hey! I’m not like one of those bots who just shrug and dump the kid somewhere when they’re done!”

“Then why not jus’ dump ‘em off at an orphanage or som—”

“ **NO!** ”

The room went quiet.

Lockdown stared at Swindle, both mechs having their optic wide with surprise. Swindle slowly lowered his servos from his intake, clapping them together with a shaky smile on his face. “I, uh… I-I rather take on my own responsibility than shoulder it off to someone else. B-besides, I’ve always wanted to have a sparkling of my own.” He looked down at his chest, pressing a servo against it. “And this is probably my only chance to have one.”

Lockdown’s associate had been impressive with their repairing skills, even replacing parts that were super rare and hard to find like it was nothing. Yet there was little they could actually do to Swindle’s gestation tank that housed the protoform inside. And the damage that was seen brought up on the screen of a scanning machine had not been pretty.

Swindle had cried harshly seeing how badly damaged the protoform had gone through thanks to Ludicrous’s poisoning, crying his spark out at the thought of losing his sparkling before he could even hold them in his arms broke him in more ways all the stellar cycles being stuck inside the stockades ever could. He hadn’t cried so harshly since he was a sparkling himself and had no one to comfort him back then.

No one except a femm bot he and all the other orphans called Oldest.

She was like a sister to Swindle and all the other orphans in the slums of Cybertron, taking care of them and watching their backs when no one else did. She was the only femm bot Swindle trusted and cared for. Right up till she disappeared one solar cycle and never came back. After that, Swindle had to struggle growing up without her.

While he was sure his sparkling wouldn’t make it, Lockdown’s associate did give him some hope. They couldn’t save his gestation tank, but they could possibly still save his sparkling with a special medical grade. Swindle didn’t hesitate to say yes.

Now his take was filled with a special blue medical grade with special nanites that were slowly repairing the damage done by the poison, and Swindle was stuck still carrying for who knows how long now. But the mech hardly minded. If it meant that they would live, he could stand it.

“… fine.” Lockdown huffed. “Though don’t expect me ta some sort of personal butler ta yer ever need fer the next couple of orbital cycles. N’ I ain’t gonna be no sparklin’ sitter either.”

“ _Gee_ , aren’t you… wait what?” Swindle blinked, looking at Lockdown confused. “What do you mean personal butler? Aren’t you busy with your own work?”

“I said I _won’t_ be yer butler.” Lockdown repeated, pointing his servo at Swindle. “N’ yes I am busy.” The hunter crossed his arms over his chest. “Busy keepin’ _you_ out of trouble fer the next couple of orbital cycles.”

Swindle blinked.

And blinked again.

And again.

When Lockdown’s words finally registered in his processor, his intake fell open in shock. “WHAT?! Wait-Wait-Wait _WHAT?!_ Keeping Me Out Of—WHAT?! Are You Offering To Be My Bodyguard Or Something?!”

Lockdown snorted. “Oh Primus no.” He got up, heading for the refueling station. Swindle sighed in relief. “Ya already hired me ta be yer guard.”

“… **_WHAT?!_** ” Swindle jumped to his peds, storming up to Lockdown and yanking a bottle of high grade energon out of his grasp. “I never hired you! In fact I never even suggested the thought to you!”

“Course ya didn’t.” Lockdown made a grab for the bottle, but Swindle kept it out of his reach. “Didn’t mention it when I gave ya the price fer the lift here 'cause ya already paid fer it.”

“But That Doesn’t Make Sense!” Swindle screamed, backing up as he kept the bottle out of Lockdown’s reach. “I Paid The Normal Amount! Two High Class Weapons With Mods! The Normal Thing I Usually Need To Bribe You To Get Me Somewhere!”

“Aww. But I gave ya a lift fer free from Calberi Nix.”

“Free?! We Spent A Good Half Of That Time From There To The Next Planet Fragging!”

“Yeah, but you weren’t complainin’.”

“W-Well no. B-But I seriously don’t ever remember paying you for anything else!”

“Ya sure ‘bout that?”

“Yes I’m—” Swindle paused. His memory brought up one event, sometime close after waking up and trying to show how to do some card tricks. How the hunter casually mentioned some form of payment for saving him and dealing with his previous ‘bodyguard’ and how he begrudgingly handed over a special one of a kind weapon he was saving to sell for a high price. It suddenly occurred to Swindle of all the other times Lockdown had gotten rid of any threats to his life that he only owed the hunter a drink. Not a weapon. “… you tricked me.”

Lockdown smirked, showing his chipped denta. “Guilty.”

“You Tricked Me!” Swindle pointed an accusing digit right at Lockdown’s smirking face. “We’ve Had A Firm Agreement And You Tricked Me!”

“Ya should’ve seen through it then.” Lockdown chuckled, swiping the bottle back from Swindle. “Or at least remembered all the drinks ya owed me fer all the times I saved yer aft.” The hunter chuckled, plopping himself down on the couch.

Swindle stood there dumbfounded. Lockdown had tricked him into hiring him as a personal bodyguard. Lockdown had tricked him into staying. Swindle was sure that after the bounty hunter had dropped him off after a couple of drinks he would have left Swindle alone to deal with his own problems. But no. Lockdown had tricked him in paying him to be his new bodyguard without him even realizing what he did.

Narrowing his optics, Swindle turned on his heel and marched towards the mech. Standing in front of him, Swindle glared down at the bounty hunter as Lockdown casually looked up at him with a smirk still on his face.

“I didn’t pay you to be my bodyguard.”

“Tell that ta the weapon ya gave me.”

“I don’t want you to be my bodyguard.”

“Well boo-hoo, I already am.”

Swindle clenched his servos, wanting to throttle the grin right off the hunter’s face. “No! You aren’t!” Swindle threw his arms up, slamming his servos around Lockdown and glared purple daggers into his easy going red optics. “I paid you to give me a lift, for saving my life, for getting rid of that mech who almost killed me and my sparkling! I didn’t pay you to keep watch over me or to follow me around like a second shadow! You’re not that reliable!”

Lockdown snorted in amusement, popping open the bottle. The smell of high grade hit Swindle’s senses, and his tank turned on end, forcing the merchant to reel back and try holding his fuel in.

“Not reliable huh? Tell me.” Lockdown grab one of the empty cubes Swindle had set aside, pouring in a good amount in it. “Who was it that saved ya when you were bein’ hunted down by the Cut Edge Gang?”

Swindle pulled a face. He still couldn’t believe that was what a group of Seekers had called themselves. That name had no style to it. “You, but only after—”

“N’ who was it that got ya out of trouble with a boss leader of Nerfrit One?”

“You, but—”

“N’ who was it that found ya after ya sent that distress signal being lost in a system of caves?”

“Oh come on! That wasn’t my fault! The map system was malfunctioning and I had nothing to do with it!”

“True, but who was it that still got ya out of there?”

“… You.”

“N’ who was it that kept ya out of harm when one of yer pervious customers decided they wanted a nice bounty ta good along with the gun ya sold ‘em?”

“…” Swindle sighed irritably. “There’s no way I’m going to convince you to leave so easy is there?”

“Nope.” Lockdown took a swing of his drink. “Yer a magnet fer trouble Swindle n’ that ain’t good. Yer stuck with me till the kid emerges Swin whether ya like it or not, so ya better get used to it.”

Swindle groaned, burying his face in his servos. He carefully considered his options. On one servo having Lockdown as his personal bodyguard wasn’t new. He had hired the bot to guard him more times than any other bot he ever knew, and he had to admit Lockdown was pretty dang good at his job. On the other servo, it would be a great risk as Swindle wasn’t sure how he could keep Lockdown from finding out that he was the sparkling’s sire. He already had a taste of angry Lockdown, he didn’t want the full course meal!

Yet, considering that he did have a tendency for trouble lately and Lockdown always managed to get him out of those situations, he would stand a better chance of surviving till the sparkling finally emerged. Though how he was going to explain any Lockdown noted similarities to the hunter… that would be something he would deal with later.

“ _Fine_. I guess you can stay.” Swindle huffed, dropping his servos. But in a blink, he snatched the bottle from Lockdown again. “But! You’re recharging on your ship and paying for all the drinks!”

Lockdown stared at him a moment, eyeing him carefully. “… Alright.” Lockdown slowly stood, and Swindle suddenly felt nervous as the larger bot towered over him, glaring down into his optics. “But I have my own conditions.”

“… o-oh?”

“Frist, before ya go see a customer, I’ll do a background check of ‘em, n’ if I deem ‘em ta be dangerous, ya won’t go see ‘em.”

Swindle rolled his optics. “Lockdown, _ALL_ of my customers are dangerous.”

“True. But ya do have some that would be mighty itchin’ ta see ya rustin’ in an alleyway with a hole in yer chest where yer spark used ta be.”

Swindle mulled over the thought before nodding. “Fair enough. And?”

“N’ I want ten percent of every sale ya make.”

“WHAT?! Ten percent?! Are you crazy?!”

“Is there a problem with that?”

Swindle narrowed his optic. “You get two percent.”

“Nine.”

“Two and a quarter.”

“Eight.”

“Two and a half.”

“Seven.”

“Two and three quarters?”

Lockdown narrowed his optics dangerously at Swindle. “ _Six_ n’ that’s my final offer. N’ ya better take it or so help me I will pick ya up n’ weld yer aft ta the berth on my ship n’ keep ya there till the kid emerges.”

Swindle stared at Lockdown for a long moment before sighing. “ _Fine_. Six percent. But only if I make a good deal!”

Lockdown smirked triumphantly, snatching the bottle back. “Pleasure doin’ business with ya.” Swindle only groaned, wondering what he had gotten himself into as Lockdown poured himself another glass of high grade.


	34. Lullabies (BlitzBee)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lullaby

It was dark outside.

The sky was covered in a sea of stars with the moon full and high, bathing the ground below in silver light.

Night bugs were awake and singing their nightly song that carried in the cooling winds of approaching winter.

Creatures of the day were safely tucked away in their homes, dreaming of a new day that was to come as creatures of the night prowled in the darkness’s cover.

Trees swayed gently in the wind, water lapping on the shores of the beach, a lone cricket leading a mysterious curios of the shadows as the first signs of small frost started to from on the earth.

And Bumblebee was beyond exhausted.

When was the last time he recharged? He didn’t know, he didn’t remember.

“Come on sparks, _please_ calm down.” Bee pleaded to his sparkling, bouncing her and walking around the ship for the umpteenth time. Yet no matter how much he rocked her, bounced her, hugged her close to his spark, his little sparkling was dead set on loudly beeping with coolant tears tracking down her face.

Bee wasn’t sure what was wrong with her. She wasn’t hungry and Ratchet couldn’t find anything wrong with her, so why was she being so dang _fussy_?

Sighing, Bumblebee walked over to the captain’s seat, setting himself down and patted his little spark’s back. “Come on, I need to recharge and so do you.” Bumblebee whined as his sparkling only got louder in response. Maybe he should have taken Ratchet’s offer to watch his little femmling, but he hadn’t felt right in letting his sparkling out of his sight so he turned down the offer.

Though now he was deeply regretting it as his sparkling only seemed to get even fussier as the cycles passed. Was he ever this fussy to his caretakers? Now that he thought of it, he was kind of a wild spark in his youth and Dusty always seemed ready to fall over before the end of the solar cycle was even near.

Bee looked down at his sparkling with a small hint of dread. “Please tell me you didn’t get that from me.” His sparkling only responded by crying more. Bee sighed in defeat. Primus, he knew sparkling care was hard but he didn’t know it was _this_ hard! It was easy at first, but now he wondered how his caretakers and every other bot with this task ever managed!

“I was so not prepared for this.” Bee rubbed his helm. He had experience caring for Longarm’s sparkling Shockrr, but the little bot was already a few orbital cycles old so that was different from now.

Primus, he hadn’t seen or spoken to Longarm in a long time. He wondered how he and Blurr were getting along these solar cycles. Fifty stellar cycles weren’t that long on their own, but it was sure a long time since he last saw them or Shockrr. He wondered if they had another sparkling while he was away.

Bee chuckled a bit at the thought, pitying them if they had. If they did, Shockrr would probably be over the moon having a small sibling to play and mess with. Shockrr was a good kid. A little hyperactive, but still a good kid. He was curious and brave with a little bit of an adventurer inside him once he got past his shyness.

Bumblebee really liked hanging out with the little mech and Shockrr really like Bumblebee too. He even started calling him Uncle Bee, which Bumblebee thought it was both cute and a little weird since to be called an uncle by someone he wasn’t even related to. But it was still nice to know that Shockrr liked him enough to call him family.

Shaking his helm, Bee looked down at his own sparkling with tired optics. He still hadn’t found the right name for her yet, which he needed to do soon before anyone else decided to name her for him. And he was not keen on having his sparkling be named anything cuties or redundant. He already had enough of those silly joke names Blitzwing came up with, he didn’t want something like Buggy-Buggy Gorgey Blue to be her permanent name!

His sparkling let out a loud beep, failing her arms about. “Oh sweetie. Why are you being so fussy?” Bee wiped his thumb over her cheek, brushing away the coolant track that was quickly replaced by another. Bee’s spark sank, wondering how he could stop his little sparkling from crying so he could get some rest when a sudden thought occurred to him.

Shockrr had been fussy a few times too in the past, often when he started missing his creators and wouldn’t calm down till he saw them again. Bee had always panicked a bit back then, but by sheer luck he found out a way to keep Shockrr calm and for things to stay relatively smooth for the remainder of his watch over the mechling.

Though it was mighty risky as he had only done it around Blitzwing and no other bot before. And despite his practice and Blitzwing’s encouragement, Bumblebee never had done it present around others in fear of what it could do to them. But Bee had been desperate back then and had no other choice but to try.

Thankfully it had worked with no problems, but Bee had made Shockrr swear never to tell his creators what he had done in fear of his secret getting out and reaching the High Council about it. He didn’t know what they would do exactly, but reading what little history he found on it after finding out what he could do, it didn’t paint a good picture to Bumblebee.

But was that risk worth it again? Shockrr got lucky because Bee didn’t panic and had a lot of practice around objects, but to his own sparkling?

Looking down at her, Bee mulled it over. Would he risk it? Was it safe? Could it be safe around a spark her age? What about Ratchet? Would he be safe? He didn’t know how far it could reach and he wasn’t sure if the old bot could handle it. Should just risk waking the old bot so he could watch over his sparkling and get some rest himself?

Bee shook his helm. No. He had already told Ratchet that he could handle this on his own, and he didn’t want to prove the old bot right that he couldn’t handle it. He looked down at his sparkling one last time and sighed.

There was no other choice. He was tired and done with all this crying. He had to take the risk.

Checking to make sure that no one was around in the dark room, Bee vented a little, trying to calm his racing spark for what he was about to do.

 _Remember Hummel, nice and zlow._ Blitzwing’s voice echoed in his helm as Bee took in a deep vent and opened his intake.

“K- Komm hör auf zu weinen, es wird in Ordnung sein. Nimm einfach meine Hand und halte sie fest.” Bee spoke in a soft quiet voice, falling on the first song he could remember clearly as he sang. Ironically, it was the same song he first sang to Blitzwing when they saw each other in secret. He didn’t know where the song came from as Sari only had it in a disk, but Bee found he rather liked it and shared it with his love. “Ich werde dich vor allem um dich herum beschützen. Ich werde hier sein, weine nicht.”

He opened one optic to peer down at his sparkling. She was still crying, but her beeping had calmed down somewhat, looking back at him with coolant in her optics with curiosity behind the wetness. A good start. And nothing was flickering around them. Feeling a bit more confident, Bee vented a bit before starting again, keeping his voice strong and soft as he began singing.

_Komm hör auf zu weinen  
Es wird gut  
Nimm einfach meine Hand  
Halte es fest_

He slipped one of his digits into her small servos, feeling those tiny digits grab it in her small servos.

_ich werde dich schützen  
Von überall um dich herum  
ich werde hier sein  
Weine nicht_

His little sparkling sniffled as she watched him. Foreign sounds reached her audibles, strange and confusing. Yet it held a soft soothing notes that seemed to hold a specail power with each strange noise that came out that felt somewhat familiar and comforting to her.

_Für einen so kleinen  
Du scheinst so stark zu sein  
Meine Arme werden dich halten  
Halte dich sicher und warm_

Bee lifted his sparkling up a bit, smiling down at her with a gentle smile on his faceplate as he hugged her gently.

_Diese Verbindung zwischen uns  
Kann nicht gebrochen werden  
ich werde hier sein  
Weine nicht_

The femmling quietly beeped, blinking up at her carrier as he spoke in a calming soft voice. She was too young to understand what he was saying, yet she didn’t need to as the effects of his soft words were working as Bee hoped for.

_Weil du in meinem Herzen sein wirst  
Ja, du wirst in meinem Herzen sein  
Von diesem Tag an  
Jetzt und für immer mehr_

Bee nuzzled his helm against the side of hers, looking into her optics with deep love.

_Du wirst in meinem Herzen sein  
Egal was sie sagen  
Du wirst immer hier in meinem Herzen sein_

Bee wasn’t the one who came up with this song, but none the less it felt right to Bee as he sang it to his sparkling. As he sang, Bee could feel the small prickles in the back of his intake starting up. He kept calm, remembering his mechfriend’s words as he continued to sing. When the first small golden ball of light left his intake, Bee tried to remain calm. A quick check of his surroundings confirmed that everything was still the same, so Bee continued.

_Warum können sie nicht verstehen, wie wir uns fühlen?  
Sie vertrauen einfach nicht, was sie nicht erklären können  
Ich weiß, wir sind anders, aber tief in uns  
Wir sind überhaupt nicht so verschieden_

His thought’s traveled to Blitzwing as he continued singing. The thought of his mechfriend brought a deep longing in his spark to see him and show him the little life they created together. He wanted nothing more than to up and leave the ship just so he could reunite with the bot he loved, but with orders from Optimus and the threat of Megatron in the way, Bumblebee had no choice in the matter and it hurt being away from the triple changer every solar cycle.

_Und du wirst in meinem Herzen sein  
Ja, du wirst in meinem Herzen sein  
Von diesem Tag an  
Jetzt und für immer mehr_

As he continued to sing, more balls of golden light came out of his intake, filling the room with golden light. One orb touched against another, merging and forming a larger ball of light. All around Bee and the sparkling, the lights slowly merged together, growing larger and larger till they were orbs the size of his lower arm that housed his stingers. The orbs twisted and took shape of familiar bots in Bee’s life, two which shaped themselves into Bee and Blitzwing holding servos on top of the ship’s console.

_Hör ihnen nicht zu  
Denn was wissen sie?_

The other glowing figures pointing accusingly at the pair, shouting silent words at the pair. The glowing Blitzwing pulled the glowing Bee into his arms, covering him protectively with his body as he glared and snapped at any glowing figure that got close to the pair.

_Wir brauchen uns  
Zu haben, zu halten_

The glowing figures started breaking apart around the pair, forming back into small dots of light. The glowing Blitzwing looked around for any danger, relaxing when he could see none, parting ways with the glowing Bumblebee and smiled at him. Glowing Bee smiled back at glowing Blitzwing, throwing his arms around the glowing mech. Glowing Blitzwing lifted glowing Bee up, spinning the pair around and around on the console.

_Sie werden es rechtzeitig sehen  
ich weiß_

The little femmling watched with high interested of the glowing pair. She still couldn’t see very well and only saw them as glowing blobs, but her curiosity was very much caught on the two as the danced on the console before they two broke apart into small dots of light.

_Wenn das Schicksal dich ruft  
Du musst stark sein  
Ich bin vielleicht nicht bei dir  
Aber du musst dich festhalten_

The small dot of light started merging again, forming back into small orbs the size of baseballs. The orbs didn’t stay orbs for long as they all started taking on the shape of butterflies, flying around the room leaving trails of glittering light behind them as they flew.

_Sie werden es rechtzeitig sehen_

One butterfly flew down and landed on the femmling’s helm, causing her to giggle. Bumblebee smiled down at his sparkling, happy to finally hear something other than crying coming from her.She gazed up at Bee, smiling brightly at him.

_ich weiß_

Bee lifted her up, nuzzling their faces together.

_Wir werden sie zusammen zeigen!_

The butterflies danced around the room, slowly taking on shapes and figures from happy times from Bumblebee’s life, ranging from the first time he meet Blitzwing to their first date to meeting Bulkhead and the rest of his friends to the moment where he held his little sparkling for the first time.

_Weil du in meinem Herzen sein wirst!  
Glaub mir, du wirst in meinem Herzen sein!  
Ich werde von diesem Tag an da sein  
Jetzt und für immer mehr_

A few butterflies morphed into Bee’s hopes and dreams. Showing Blitzwing their sparkling, helping her walk for the first time to her first transformation, helping her with anything she needed to understand and being with her every step of the way in her life.

_Ooh, du wirst in meinem Herzen sein  
Egal was sie sagen  
Du wirst immer hier in meinem Herzen sein_

Bee opened his optics, staring right into his sparkling bright optics.

_Immer_

He nuzzled his cheek against hers, earning another small giggle from her. “Immer.” He placed a small kiss on her helm as he finished his song, the light around them fading away till they were left in darkness again with only the faint glow of their optics illuminating their faces.

The femmling beeped quietly, stretching her little servos out to Bumblebee. The scout smiled at his sparkling before a thought occurred to him and gazed around the room quickly, filling with relief when he didn’t see anything wrong.

“Oh thank Primus.” Bee sighed, sagging into the seat. He looked back down at his sparkling, smiling at her as she beeped happily. “Guess all that training with your sire paid off in the end.” Bee mussed, placing his digit back in her grasp. She beeped happily as Bumblebee stood up from the chair. “Alright you. Time for bed.”

His sparkling beeped as he started to head out of the room. “And please, don’t make me have to sing to you every night to get you to calm down. I do not want any of the rest of the guys finding I can do that and have them finding out about the whole Sirenox thing. It’s more than a light show and…”

A cold lump from in the back of Bee’s intake as he stopped, trying keep down a certain dark memory.

“… and it’s very very dangerous.”

“ _Really? How very interesting_.”

Bee’s optics widened, whirling around and looking up just as his shoulders were pierced and his remaining energy drain from his body. His vision went black as his body fell backwards, falling into deep darkness.

* * *

Far away back on the mainland, Blitzwing was gazing at the ceiling under the Autobot’s base.

The walls and floor were covered with deep groves and holes that were Autobot shaped, but the ex-Decepticon hardly cared about it nor did he feel any joy looking at the damage he had done.

Instead, the triple changer sat in one corner of the room, hugging his stabilizers and wondering how his family was doing. The Prime had assured him again and again that Bumblebee and their sparkling were safe on the ship with Ratchet keeping an optic on them. Yet Blitzwing’s programing kept screaming at him to go and make sure for himself that his small family were safe and secure as everyone kept telling him.

A part of his wanted to sneak out and go to his Hummel, but he held back. He knew he wasn’t on stable grounds with the Autobots, and he didn’t want to risk making any more damage that would tear him away from ever seeing his family. Hummel had been the peacekeeper when he was here, but now that he wasn’t, Blitzwing politely kept his distance from the others so not to start anything.

Bulkhead had made many attempts to get him to open up to the others and Prowl introduced him to the arts of meditation, yet Blitzwing really just wanted his Hummel back and see his sparkling. The only ones who respected his choice to stay away were the human Sari and the Prime himself. Mostly because no one trusted the small girl around the big unhinged bot and the Prime wanting to keep the peace in the base.

Which was fine. Blitzwing rather wanted to be alone so he could have his thoughts sorted out with this whole ex-Con thing and what he was going to do now.

He was obviously going to stay with Bumblebee, but he wondered how he was going to remain by his side.

The triple changer sighed, longing for his Hummel and wishing this whole war never happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dare anyone to guess the song Bee was sing without Goggle Translate.


	35. Stay (SwinLock)

The thing he learned about Swindle over the stellar cycles was that the merchant was like a safe. A nice optic catching fancy high tech safe with all the special little tricky locks and gizmos to keep everything inside in and everything else out. And even if you managed to get past the first door, there were plenty more with more secured locks on the next door.

Lockdown kind of liked that about Swindle. Kept things interesting between them and he sort of liked the mystery to it all.

It was mostly a trial and error picking out the little locks in Swindle’s safe, and unfortunately, those locks couldn’t be picked with his tools. Nothing physical could get to those locks, so Lockdown was forced to use wit.

And Primus oh mighty was his wits tested!

That mech sure knew how to twist his words and make a second meaning out of them! Lockdown wasn’t sure if he should be insanely irritated or might impressed at that bot’s wits and mind games. That and along with his voice, Lockdown found it very hard to stay focus of what he originally wanted to talk about.

Maybe that was way he kept his focus on Swindle’s optics instead of his words. There was an old saying that the optics were the gateway to the soul or something his old master used to say way back when. He didn’t really pay too much focus on the flimsy words of wisdom, he was a mech of action and thrill.

Plus, Swindle’s optics were always nice to stare into. The color and size of them were certainly unique and special to gaze into.

 _“They’re really not all that special. I’ve meet bots with bigger and more vibrant color optics than mine.”_ Swindle once told him a long time ago. But Lockdown digressed. Sure he meet other bots who did have bigger optics and more vibrant colors, but Swindle’s optics always seemed to stand out to him the most for some reason. He just didn’t know why.

Maybe it was because Swindle knew how to use them against Lockdown that they stuck out to him the most. Not that the hunter fell for it as often as Swindle would probably like though he did wish the merchant would be quiet and let him stare into those optics of his. The only time he ever kept his optics open long enough for Lockdown to enjoy them was usually after a night of fun or when Swindle, for the rare part of him, would contact him out of the blue for no reason other than to meet up and snuggle.

Lockdown was far from a snugly bot. In fact he was the clear opposite of it that was very visible to show all around his body. Yet when Swindle would get into that very rare moment of broken self-confidence, the merchant usually crawled to Lockdown for comfort.

Lockdown didn’t honestly know what drove Swindle to seek him out for comfort, or maybe he did. Swindle would never show that side of himself to anyone that could damage his business image so badly that he would be ruined before the end of the stellar cycle if word got out, yet Lockdown was allowed to. The hunter figured it was because he was sort of a reserved type of that Swindle felt safe around him not to share his secrets with others. Or that he knew of Swindle’s rare moments of weaknesses and didn’t use it over the arm’s dealer for anything.

Couldn’t say too much of the same on his end though. Lockdown liked to keep his misery locked away deep inside, drowning it with high grade energon and engex to dull the pain. Getting his servo on a bottle engex was tricky though as bars tended to avoid giving him any till he paid his huge tab and Swindle would hound on him about his health if he caught him drinking that stuff again. Though he could persuade the mech in joining him for a cup or two just to get him off his tailcoats.

Still when Swindle got in that rare moment of feeling down in the dumps, his usual source of comfort was the bounty hunter himself. But since this whole _sparkling_ thing happened, Swindle tended to avoid him for long megacycles on end. He wasn’t really surprised by the change of behavior in Swindle, he had given the merchant a good reason to be wary of him.

The only time Lockdown ever saw Swindle was when the merchant needed to leave his hidden warehouse to an appointment of arm’s dealing with other bots or when he checked up on the bot. He made sure to keep far with his distance around Swindle when he dropped in to make sure the merchant hadn’t dropped dead. They may be on shaky grounds already, but Lockdown didn’t want to give Swindle a spark attack after the whole ordeal he went through trying to save the small spark in him.

Or a good reason to get rid of him when he was so close to finding out who the sire was.

While he could have just ask Swindle who was responsible for putting that kid in him, the mercenary didn’t want to risk shattering the already shaky trust between them. He wanted to be back on Swindle’s good side of deal making, even though their trust was certain to be beyond repair of what they once had.

If Lockdown probed and demanded who the sire was, he was more than willing to believe Swindle would up and disappear on him with all ties cut between them gone. And Lockdown did NOT want that.

No, he needed to be careful about this. He needed to be smart and crafty.

Swindle was sure to have covered all traces to the sire, though Lockdown was certain it had to be one of his major clients. Bots of the underground knew Swindle pretty well, for his weapons and his greed for profit. Big names and dangerous gangs all one way or another had ties that led to Swindle and it was a mystery how the merchant could handle managing keeping contacts with all those bots when mostly all them were mortal enemies with one another.

Then again he did manage to make a profit between two Cons that escalated to a full planet destruction. It ended with Swindle needing repairs after they found out about his trickery, but the bot still managed to make a pretty penny in the end.

Still, it made Lockdown a little worried that Swindle might have too much confidence bloating in his helm not to see the danger standing right there in front of him when his con was figured out. Primus only knows how many times Lockdown had to save that bot’s aft from danger when it happened.

And Swindle never seemed to learn his lesson.

No matter how many times he dealt with those painful lessons, Swindle would get back up and do it all over again. And a lot of those times, Lockdown himself had to remind the brick head of the danger he seemed to always walk himself into.

 _Primus_ he surely hoped the sire had some common sense in him otherwise that kid was sure to have Swindle’s lack of perceptive danger.

Speaking of which, Lockdown wondered what attracted Swindle towards the sire of his sparkling. None of his clients they went to see the past two orbital cycle looked very appealing or very Swindle attractive bots. Swindle had specific taste in mechs, and excluding himself, he preferred mechs with looks and prefect balance of class to them.

Kind of a weird taste if you ask him.

And none of them had any previous interactions with Swindle that would match up to the time Swindle got sparked, which had to be sometime before or after Swindle meet up with him during their last deal.

Unfortunately, Swindle liked to delete data he found no longer useful to him, so much of his weapon selling history was lost. So tracking down the mysterious sire was going to be harder than he thought.

And he **hated** it.

Still, this was Swindle he was talking about. And Swindle was all about challenges. And he did like a good challenge now and then.

But that didn’t mean it was his main focus.

“Yo, Swindle, ya still online?” Lockdown called out, looking around the decked out lounging room. A deep frown crossed his faceplate when he didn’t see Swindle anywhere in the room.

It had been a couple of megacycles since he last seen the mech. Normally Lockdown would have loved to grab at any chance to get some silence that seemed to disappear around Swindle, but the hunter knew that Swindle being silent and quiet was even worse.

Silence usually meant two things. Either Swindle left, which was very unlikely since both of his ships were still here, or…

The hunter moved across the room quietly to the far end, pushing aside some thick deep purple silk current to a hidden door. Placing his helm against it, Lockdown listened carefully.

Behind the metal, Lockdown could barely hear the quiet sounds of hitching vents.

“Swindle?” Lockdown rapped his hook on the door, hearing a soft gasp on the other side. “Ya still online in there?”

Only silence was his answer. “I’m comin’ in.”

The room was simple in comparison to the lounge room, yet still very much well decorated with the added touch of tinted lighting. Swindle had a big thing for purple, which Lockdown had to guess was his favorite color beside gold, and nearly everything he had was either in gold or purple.

The mech himself was laid out not on a normal berth, but a large plush cushion that was big enough for a Decepticon to lay out flat on it and be comfortable with the room left over. Lockdown didn’t understand why Swindle would have this as a choice for recharging on when a berth was just as comfortable.

“Ya alive?” Lockdown poked Swindle’s back, looking for the mech’s face against the pillows.

Swindle gave no verbal response, and for a moment Lockdown was afraid that the mech really was offline till Swindle shifted his helm and glanced at Lockdown with a single optic. They stared at each other a moment before Swindle buried his face in the pillow again, mumbling a go away.

Lockdown stared at Swindle a moment.

This wasn’t a normal rare moment of misery for Swindle. This one was too quiet, too out in the open for anyone to see. When Swindle had his rare moments, usually the rooms he hid in were trashed and torn and the bot hid himself so well that it took Lockdown a bit to find him. If Lockdown had to guess, was more likely that the events of the past few orbital cycles were finally catching up to Swindle.

The hunter stared at the arm’s dealer for a long while before sighing heavily and sitting himself on the edge cushion. He wasn’t the best with comfort, but he could deal with getting Swindle out of his little downers. And to do that, was to talk.

Lockdown didn’t have anything interesting to tell nor did know what exactly to talk about, but he just talked. Anything that popped into his helm that seemed interesting enough to say, he spoke in out loud that was loud enough for Swindle not to ignore but soft enough not to be shouting.

He was up to talking about the parts he needed to repair his ship, when he felt Swindle shift on the cushion and a servo grabbing his arm. He looked at Swindle, finding the merchant gazing at the pillows rather than him.

“… thanks.” Swindle mumbled. Lockdown nodded his helm.

“Ya think yer good or do ya want me ta stay fer a bit longer?” The hunter asked. Swindle didn’t verbally respond but Lockdown could guess by the way his grip tightened that he wanted him to stay. So stay he did.


	36. Webs (BlitzBee)

A thousand stellar cycles. That’s how long it took her to get used to the isolation. The glares and disgusted remarks behind her back helped with that as well. Though some of those remarks were said to her face as well.

Most by a certain three faced bot.

A certain part of her felt that he should be thanking her rather than yelling profaned curses at her whenever they crossed paths. She had upgraded his body to be better than before, better than any bot could possibly think! He should be thanking her rather than getting angry at her.

Still, it didn’t give her any insight or give her any step closer to getting her old body back. Changing Blitzwing into a triple changer had broken a seemingly impossible scientific breakthrough, yet the mech was hardly grateful about it and it wielded nothing to her current constant problem.

The reflection glared at her in the glass. The same reflection she had to get used to seeing all these stellar cycles, all glaring and judging her. Reminder her constantly that there was no escape for herself. Ups and downs in her work, making new discovers and inventing new inventions. None it truly reached for what she longed for.

Oh what she would give just to have her old body back again.

With a growl, she turned away from the reflection, trying to focus on her new work. Something she was certain would work in removing her wretched organic half. The files she found on genetic manipulation gave her some hope that she had finally found a clue she had long been looking for.

The notes and information she pulled from the files were almost perfect, near identical to hers but somewhat more understanding of the matter. And what was better was that she had the mechanism to do it! But it was sadly lacking a few things to work. Another wrench to her plans, but maybe not as bad as it seems.

The Autobot’s ship happened to be on the same island. It was bound to have everything she needed to finish the machine and finally be rid of her organic half.

Infiltrating the ship had been fairly simple thanks to her organic half concealing her signature from the scanners. Her organic half had some uses after all. Not that she would admit it out loud.

But to her disappointment, nothing on the ship had what she needed.

Though she didn’t exactly leave empty handed.

“Fascinating. I haven’t seen a voice box like this before.” Her tools probed at her captive’s vox, marveling at the mechanical workings she had never seen before. The outside of the vox looked very similar to any normal bot’s vox, but he inside was much more complex and highly advanced.

She grinned at her captive. “Who knew such a chatterbox had such an interesting secret hidden in the most annoying place in plain sight.” Her captive was strapped down to a table, limbs splayed out to his sides and strapped down by metal bars. His intake was covered by some of her webbing, glaring at her venomously. “Oh don’t look at me like that. I not going to mess around with it too much.”

She went back to probing at a wire that glowed with a strange color, watching it as it shifted from blue to red and fade back to blue. “It’s more worth studying as it is now for later research. _Then_ I’ll take it apart for further study.” She grinned at him deviously. “You wouldn’t mind that, would you?”

Blackarachnia laughed as she heard her captive struggle against his bindings. “I wouldn’t do that.” She spoke in a sing song voice. “If you continue to struggle, I’ll just move on to my next captive for my research.” She tapped her chin. “I wonder how well sparklings handle having their insides poked?” Her smile grew as the struggles stopped. “That’s more like it. Better behave. _Or else_.”

She let the warning hang in the air as she continued to study the voice box. This was certainly something she would need to study later. For now, she wanted to see the full extent in action. Carefully she closed up her captive’s vox, making sure not to put anything out of place as she did. Once done, she picked up the little device and went over to her captive.

He was still glaring at her, but didn’t struggle as she hooked his vox back in place in his neck cabling. “Alright, here’s a little deal. I want you to do that thing you did on the ship.” She grabbed the edge of the gag, ripping it off his face. “I want to see how it wor—”

The captive opened his intake, letting out a sound that caught Blackarachnia off-guard. The lights and the computers started flickering and sparking violently. Slapping a servo over the mech’s intake, the sound was cut off and everything flickered a few moments before returning to normal.

Making sure everything was back to normal, she glared all four optics at her captive. “Nice try. But that won’t work on a techno organic.”

The captive glared harder at her. “OW!” Blackarachnia drew her servo away. “You little! Didn’t anyone teach you some manners?!”

“Yeah, but I only use them for my friends.” The mech retorted. “And you’re certainly no friend of mine!”

“Same here.” Blackarachnia hissed, shaking her servo a bit. “But I don’t need friends. They’re a waste of time and good for nothing.” Her face softened a bit. “… and only let you down in the end.”

“That’s not true! Friends will always be there for you when you need them the most!”

Her optics widened, flashes of memories crossed her mind before shoving them away and glared harshly at the mech. “You wish.” Jabbing him with her spider legs, she drained the bot of his energy. New codes flooded into her systems, fitting into her own coding easily.

She frowned when all that she took from him was his stingers, scoffing at the failure to copy the mech’s other power. She didn’t understand why her power couldn’t download that particular ability. It should have been easy. Yet it would explain why she didn’t notice it the first time she downloaded his powers.

She glared at the mech’s prone form, covering his intake with webbing and got to work removing his vox. She wanted to understand how this mech’s vox worked and why all electrode-machanical devices seemed to be effected by it. And the strange ability with the glowing orbs.

Her captive was less than cooperative however, and tended to let lose some form of scream whenever his intake was free of its binds. Twice he already tried to escape, but she was quick to administrate a small dosage of her Cybervenom to his systems to knock him out. Was a hassle to get him to cooperate, but it gave her a nice little demonstration of that ability.

“There has to be something I’m missing.” She muttered, taking the vox out and turning it over carefully in her grasp. Before she could study it further, her receptors picked up a noise coming from the other room. “Oh give me a break.” She huffed, setting the vox down on the table.

“I can’t get a moment’s peace and quiet around here anymore!” Stepping into smaller room, she went over to her other captive. A smaller, younger bot, wrapped in a cocoon of webs, was crying her spark out. When the femmling she her approaching, her crying became quieter, sniffling at the full grown femm glaring at her.

“What’d ya want stinky?” The older femm huffed, placing her servos on her hips.

The little femmling stared up at her, wondering where the brighter color blob went and why this darker blob was here instead. Usually when she cried for attention, the bright blob was always quick to come back, but the darker blob had taken the lighter blob’s place. She didn’t know what to think about this blob. It wasn’t like the grumpy blob, nor the colorful blob.

“Look kid. I’m trying to work here.” Blackarachnia plucked the smaller femm off the web, bringing her up close to her face. “And you constantly keeping me from that work. So I would appreciate it if you didn’t make so much noise and let me work in peace!”

The sparkling stared at her, blinking her wide blue optics at the older bot.

“… I’m yelling at a sparkling. I’m. Yelling. At a sparkling.” Blackarachnia sighed, dropping her helm. “Sparklings are young and dumb, they can’t even understand the sounds coming out of your intake.” She huffed, looking at the femmling in irritation.

She didn’t understand why she took the sparkling with her, all it did was make noise and distract her from her work. Yet making threats to harm the sparkling made her other older captive more obedient and quiet. She figured the sparkling must be his since he seemed very keen to not let any harm befall on her.

If that was the case, there was a good chance this sparkling inherited that same type of vox from her creator. Though she won’t know that till the kid started talking, and that would take a looooong time.

The sparkling beeped, wiggling in the cocoon. “What? What do want?” Blackarachnia asked, watching the tiny bot squirm. “You can’t break out if that’s what you’re trying to do. My webs are—” Her optics widened as the sparkling managed to get one of her arms out. “… un… breakable.” The older femm huffed.

The sparkling beeped, patting the blob with the dark colors. “Hey hey hey! My face is not a toy kid!” Blackarachnia scold, placing the sparkling back on the web and turned to leave. She didn’t get far before the sparkling started wailing. Blackarachnia tried walking away, but that made the sparkling wail louder.

Groaning, Blackarachnia turned around, plucking the sparkling off the web and carried her back to her lab. The sparkling stopped crying once she was back in the older femm’s arms, latching on to Blackarachnia’s chest and babbled in small beeps. The older femm gazed down at her, looking at the sparkling questionably.

The little femmling blinked up at her, forming a small smile on her face. The hard stare on Blackarachnia’s face softened a bit, thrown in a loop how someone could look at her and not scream in terror. The femmling reached her small servo up, trying to grab the edge of the techno organic’s helmet.

Despite herself, Blackarachnia smiled a bit. “Heh, crazy little thing aren’t you?” She lifted a digit up to the sparkling’s servo, but stopped immediately, her optics widened and held the sparkling out far from her. What was wrong with her?! She glared at the sparkling. “Look kid. I don’t know what you’re doing but _stop it_. Just because you’re a sparkling doesn’t mean I won’t hesitate to experiment on you!”

The femmling stared at her.

“… I’m yelling at a sparkling again.” Blackarachnia sighed. “Fine, you can stay with me for a bit. But only if you stay quiet!” The sparkling stared at her a moment before letting out a series of happy little beeps. “I said—oh forget it.” The elder femm sighed in defeat as the younger kept beeping happily. “Primus you talk too much. Whoever your other creator must be either has be deaf or just as chatty as the other one.”

“Beep!”

Blackarachnia rolled her optics. “Deaf it is then.” She huffed, getting back to work with a constantly happy beeping sparkling in her arms.

* * *

On the other side of the island, the waves on the beach exploded as a massive tank drove out of the water that was followed by a fire truck.

“Blitzwing! Stop!”

The tank halted, transforming into an angry Blitzwing. “Vhy Zhould I?! Hummel And Our Zparkling Are Missing And None Of Jou Are Out Looking For Zem!”

Optimus transformed into his robot form. “Blindly going out looking for them won’t help either.”

“At Least I’m Doing Zomething!”

“ _Look_.” Optimus looked firmly into Blitzwing glaring visior, standing his ground around the angry triple changer. “I get that you’re upset, but running ahead without a plan or an idea on where to start looking for Bee and the sparkling will just be wasting time.”

“And Not Looking For Zem Vates Even More Time! Vhat If Zey Get Hurt?! Vhat If Zey **Are** Hurt?! Vhat I Zey Got Captured Or Zomething Vorse?!”

“Calm down, we’ll find them.”

“Jou Don’t Know Zat!”

Optimus frowned. “… No, I don’t. But panicking and standing around arguing isn’t going to help. I understand that you’re upset, but blindly looking around for them without a lead could end up being worse for Bumblebee and the sparkling.” He looked at Blitzwing softly. “I want to find them as quickly as possible too, but we need to think this through first before rushing in and doing anything rash. Okay?”

Blitzwing was quiet, taking in the Prime’s words carefully. After a few tense nanoklik, Blitzwing’s face shifted to Icy, venting harshly. “Very vell. I zuppose jou are correct. Apologies for yelling… and punching jou… and breaking zee computer screen… and zee door.”

Optimus sighed in relief. “It’s… fine.” He looked out on the island, spotting the ship in the distance. “The ship isn’t that far. The security should have some footage of what happened.”

Blitzwing nodded quietly and the pair quickly headed off. It was a few tense moments before Blitzwing face spun to Random. “Oh! By zee vay, did Hummel ever zay vat zee zparkling’s name vas? I vant to name zem Gary! It used to be Gorge but zat vas zooo four orbital cycles ago.”

“How in the world did Bumblebee fall for you?”

“Vell it’s zort of a funny ztory. Jou zee, a long long time ago!”


	37. Movies (SwinLock)

“With Horror’s Hand, children will fear me again! People with _puke_ when they hear the name _Boogeyman_.”

“ _Oh please_. Who would blow a gasket hearin’ a name like that?”

“Lockdown, shush!”

“What? It’s true!”

“SHH!”

Lockdown rolled his optics but kept quiet none the less. He really didn’t believe anyone could just blow a gasket just by hearing some stupid name, especially a name that stupidly belong to a green talking shriveled dirty rag. Who kinda sounded familiar for some reason.

The pair were currently inside one of Swindle’s ships. A clunky old thing that looked fine on the outside, but in serious need of an upgrade on the inside. Nowhere near being impressive, big, highly advanced or functional like his own ship. More than once in the past Lockdown had tried convincing Swindle to get rid of it, yet the merchant very much refused to do so. It was old, probably older before the war happened, and Swindle straight up refused to have the thing tossed out to the garbage where it belonged or have it fixed.

Eventually Lockdown gave up trying to convince Swindle to get a different ship and just went along with it. It wasn’t bad per say. It was just that it wasn’t the best for defense purposes. Or good at getting to a destination very fast. Nor did it have the best record of working properly time to time. Which is why they were watching these so called ‘movies’.

It all started when Swindle had an appointment with a client a few solar cycles ago. A client that, conveniently, had a straight up phobia to everything. _Literally_. **Everything**.

How and why Swindle had a client like that, Lockdown would never know.

Swindle had tried to get Lockdown to stay away and deal with the client on his own, but the hunter had refused, pulling the bodyguard card on him and tagging along. Though much to Lockdown’s annoyance, Swindle only agreed to let him come along if they took one of his ships instead of the Death’s Head. Swindle had argued how the smell of rusted energon inside the ship made him sick in the tank and refused to even step in it till the smell cleared away. Which would take solar cycles and Swindle wanted to get to his client quickly.

Lockdown had tried to argue that he ship was much more capable and faster transport, but in the end gave in to Swindle’s demand and both took the less reliable ship. The trip took longer than what his ship could have taken half the time or less, yet Swindle finished his business with the client fairly quickly, so they were off planet faster than Lockdown anticipated.

But only a quarter way back, the ship’s engine gave out leaving the pair stranded in space.

And Lockdown only smirked to prove a point while Swindle loudly cursed and yelled while kicking the poor broken engine.

Luckily Lockdown’s ship was on the way. He had installed a special tracking beacon inside it to follow his coordinates and pick him up. Had its uses now and then. Unfortunately, it was going to take a couple of megacycles before his ship arrived, so the pair were stuck waiting in the broken ship for the Death’s Head to arrive.

Wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Most of the electricity still worked and there was plenty of fuel in the storage tank so at least they wouldn’t starve.

Lockdown was more worried about dying of boredom than anything else. That was when Swindle pulled out some of those ‘movies’ from his infinite storage space, waving them in front of the hunter’s face like a priceless jewel or something special before plopping one in the console and started play it on the screen.

Wasn’t exactly the first time Swindle roped him into watching these ‘movies’. The pair had watched plenty of them over the stellar cycles. A few Lockdown had liked, and a few he didn’t care about. He especially liked the ones where everyone died in the bloody mess in the end. Those ‘movies’ always made Swindle squirm and flinch uncomfortably while Lockdown just laughed his aft off while Swindle liked the ones that were more colorful and made him laugh by a good timed joke.

Lockdown usually recharged during those ‘movies’. However they could both agree that they particularly liked ‘movies’ that had mystery with a bit of both of their preferences. Betting on who was the true killer was always fun to do, and it was just as fun to mock the other when the person they betted on turned out to be the right one. So far the score was Lockdown 79, Swindle 10.

Looking at his prosthetic, Lockdown checked how much time was left before his ship arrived. He frowned when it showed it would take at least another four megacycles for the Death’s Head to arrive at their current location. _Great_. He was stuck here for four more megacycles watching…

“What movie is this call again?”

“Mm.” Swindle shrugged, his optics locked on the screen while popping a small energon candy cube in his intake. “Something call Big Boogey Adventure I think? I don’t really know.”

“Didn’t ya say ya watched this over ten times already?”

“Yeah, but I’m more focused on the movie than the name of it.”

“But ya… _never mind_.” Lockdown grumbled, leaning back against the sofa. It wasn’t a very big sofa, just large enough to fit one mech comfortably in the seat, yet somehow Lockdown and Swindle managed to squeeze themselves on the small thing with the hunter taking the seat for himself and Swindle, being stubborn as usual, sitting on top of his lap. Not the best comfortable thing but they managed.

“H-Hey!” Swindle cried out as Lockdown plucked the candy cube from his digits and flicked it into his intake. “That was mine!”

“Ya do realize that originally they were _mine_.” Lockdown licked his digits. “I did pay fer ‘em myself n’ everythin’. You jus’ swiped ‘em from my ship.”

“Well if you just hid them better, maybe I wouldn’t have found them!” Swindle huffed, swatting Lockdown’s servo away when he reached for another cube. “Mine!”

“One, they’re mine. Two, there’s ‘nough ta share so don’t hog it all. N’ three, ya normally hate sweets.”

“No, no, and normally yes.” Swindle popped another cube in his intake. “But I blame the kid’s cravings for that. Hey!” Swindle held the box filled with the energon candy out of Lockdown’s reach

“Oh stuff it up yer exhaust port n’ let me have some.”

“But they’re mine!”

“They’re _mine_ n’ I want some so give ‘em here.”

“No!”

“Swindle.”

“They’re mine! Get your own!”

“Those _ARE_ mine Brickhead!”

“Well now they’re mine!”

“Only ‘cause ya stole ‘em!”

“Too bad.” Swindle stuck his glossa out at Lockdown. “Still mine.”

“Swindle yer actin’ childish.”

“Maybe.” The merchant smirked, plucking a small cube and placing it between his denta. “Muff mm miff m mill mem mi—”

Lockdown narrowed his optics. In a quick flash, the hunter grabbed the back of Swindle’s helm, pulling the arm’s dealer towards him, locking their lips in a kiss. The act caught Swindle by surprise, leaving him vulnerable for Lockdown’s long glossa to slip in his intake and swipe the energon candy from him.

The hunter pulled away with the energon candy cube wrapped in his long serpentine glossa, closing his intake with a sharp click and swallowing it whole. “Ha!” He smirked triumphantly at the dazed merchant. “Got it.”

Swindle’s optics blinked, staring at Lockdown a good long moment before his face shifted into a hard glare. “ _That was mine_.”

Lockdown shrugged, leaning back against the sofa. “Was originally mine in the first place.”

Swindle kept glaring at Lockdown. “Was the kiss really necessary?”

“Did I manage ta get the candy from ya?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes”

Swindle scowled as Lockdown smirked.

“That wasn’t necessary.”

Lockdown snorted, crossing his arms. “Wasn’t necessary on Nebulos ten thousand stellar cycles ago.”

“Oh come on! I said I was sorry!” Swindle threw his arms up, spilling candy cubes everywhere. “I was drunk! You were standing there being all… _you_. Plus it was your own fault for not moving away!”

“My fault fer not movin’ away? Mister, the moment I took a step back, ya started brawlin’ n’ whinin’ like a sparklin’ that had their candy taken away.”

“Did not!”

“Did too. I remember ya wouldn’t stop cryin’ till I kissed ya back too.”

“DID NOT!”

“Ya did too.” Lockdown’s smirk only grew as Swindle’s glare grew harder. “Though I can’t say you were much of a good kisser when yer drunk.”

“Well of course not! I was drunk! You know I’m not as a heavy drinker as you are Lockdown.”

“I know.” The hunter hummed. “Yer not really yerself after a few drinks.”

Swindle huffed, trying to focus back on the movie that began a musical number with the kid with a big nose singing about not being scared or something. Why? Lockdown didn’t know and didn’t care. He hadn’t really paid it any attention till now.

As the song continued on, at some point Swindle started humming along to the tune. Lockdown hardly paid any attention to it. Until the green booger man thing came on screen that Lockdown’s processor filly clicked.

He looked at Swindle, than back at the screen, then back at the humming merchant. Swindle turned his helm slightly, seeing Lockdown looking at him oddly. “… what? Is there something on my—”

“You n’ the green guy sound alike.”

“… what?” Swindle looked at screen, frowning when a deep green monster with long black hair dropped down from the top of the screen and started singing. “Oh _ha ha_ , very—”

“Not that one!” Lockdown grabbed the remote, rewinding the movie a bit till the booger man came on screen again with a gun in his hands.

“Ha ha! Dance you sausage! Dance! Ha ha!”

“ _That_ one!” Lockdown pointed his hook at the screen. “He even does yer laugh!”

Swindle stared at the screen for a moment, narrowing his optics a bit. “… Hand me the remote.” Lockdown wordlessly gave him the device. Pressing a few buttons, the movie further and further back till it was at the scene of the trial.

“—with a pumpkin on his neck, but it was also taken by Billy, Mandy, Irwin, Billy’s father, Billy’s mother, Billy’s cousin, Billy’s cat, Dracula, General Skarr, Principle Goodvibes, Mrs. Claus, the Secret Snake club, the army, scout troop seven o one, the Sleztecks, the president, the mailman, the Dingosmit Sisters, the Boogeyman, a lama, and a turkey salad sandwich. _Hold the mayo_.”

Swindle paused the clip and stared at the screen. For a long while he stared at the green shriveled thing on the screen, staring at them carefully before turning his helm with a frown. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

Lockdown slapped his face. “Ya don’t _look_ alike brickhead. Ya both _sound_ alike!”

“ _Oh!_ Oh that makes way more sense! Yeah I-I’ve always sort of noticed that. Don’t know why though. It’s almost as if we share the same voice actor or something!”

“Don’t be stupid Swindle, that guy’s is a fictional bein’ n’ yer not.”

“Who’s to say that I’m not?”

“ _I do_.”

“Well what if we’re both not real? And just fictional characters of some sort of story or TV show?”

“Please, yer bein’ ridiculous Swin. N’ besides, if we were really fictional bein’s, who out their slaggin’ minds would even want ta watch a show or be interested ‘bout transformin’ robots?”

Swindle stared at Lockdown a moment, looking at him expressionless and still. Then his face started to slowly split into that familiar money making grin. “ _Actually_. That’s not such a bad idea right there!”

Lockdown slapped his face and groaned, already hearing the rings of a cash register going off in Swindle’s helm.

* * *

The feeling of an empty tank woke Swindle up from his recharge.

Swindle blinked open his optics, groaning a bit as he lifted his helm up a little, finding a zebra blob in his sight. It took a moment for his optics to focus for Swindle to see his face next to Lockdown’s.

Heat flooded into Swindle’s cheeks, moving back a bit and finding himself wrapped tight in Lockdown’s arms, keeping him next the mercenary. Well this was embarrassing. Swindle had woken up next to Lockdown plenty of times before. But that was _before_. This in _now_.

Now as in Lockdown didn’t like him anymore like that and was more likely faking the whole bodyguard thing and probably waiting for the right moment to strike and find the most painful way to kill him…

Right?

That was what he was doing… right?

Swindle looked at Lockdown’s face. Plenty of times he had seen that face, in many moods and in many ways. During deals, during battles, during a night with just the two of the fooling around…

But rarely Swindle ever saw Lockdown’s face look so… relaxed. Even when recharging, Lockdown’s face was usually in a somewhat stern look to it, but now it seemed so… calm.

The merchant wiggled one of his arms free, lifting his servo up to Lockdown face and carefully traced the black marks. They weren’t add-ons or tattoos as one might think. They were special marks, a genetic thing that a sparkling inherited from their creators.

Swindle had inquired about Lockdown’s face marks once before, but the mercenary just shrugged off his question. The face marks didn’t come up in topic again till one night after a drunk Lockdown called Swindle to pick him because apparently he lost his ship. Though in truth the ship was just parked at a different spot on the outskirts of the planet and being so overcharged Lockdown got turned around and forgot which way he was supposed to go.

He was lucky that Swindle happened to be in the area and in a good mood to drag the giggling drunk mech back to his ship.

Unfortunately, Lockdown had to go and be cuddly that night when Swindle managed to get him on his ship, refusing to let the smaller bot go and keep him pinned to his chest. And to add injury to insult, Lockdown kept calling Swindle that stupid nick-name he hated so much.

_‘Winnie’._

**_UGH_.**

That’s when Lockdown let it slip that he wasn’t a forged made bot, but a spark made one. Swindle was completely taken by surprise as the mech explained everything to him, and while normally Swindle was curious about Lockdown’s past, it felt like cheating to him that the mech was spilling his soul to him drunk. The merchant like hearing a dirty secret or two, but he never wanted to intrude on Lockdown’s privacy like this.

The bot kept talking about his early life till he slipped into recharge, keeping Swindle pinned next to him the whole time till morning came around and the hunter woke up with a splitting helmache and an irritated merchant waiting to be let go. Much to say it was awkward for them to even look at each other for a while.

Looking at these marks now, Swindle never much asked if marks were a strong inherited thing, or if they appeared slowly with time. He wondered briefly if their sparkling would get marks similar as its sire’s.

That… would be a hard thing to explain.

Swindle shook his helm, sighing.

What was he doing? He and Lockdown were over. Done. Gone. Not happening. Bye-bye.

He wasn’t sure what was between them now, but he was certain it wasn’t what they had before. Damn lingering feelings.

He needed to get away from Lockdown before the sparkling emerged. His current plan almost worked if Lockdown hadn’t pulled that bodyguard card on him. It was for the better if Lockdown never knew he sired the sparkling in him. Slag, if knowing Lockdown all these stellar cycles, he would feel nothing towards their sparkling and probably kill it just so he wouldn’t take any responsibility.

Yes, that was more likely to happen. Swindle was sure of it. Lockdown may not love the sparkling, but Swindle did. And he wasn’t going to let this sparkling suffer just because its sire didn’t love them. He was going to make sure that his sparkling life was filled with love and adortion.

And not suffer the same thing that happened to him all those stellar cycles ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone else know that Swindle and the Boogeyman from Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy shared the same voice actor? I didn't. Rest in peace Fred Willard. You gave a wonderful voice to the most Con-mech out there and you would have brought more if TFA had a season 4.


	38. Date Night (BlitzBee)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a little break from the story with a small soft BlitzBee chapter

_He. Is. Late._

Bumblebee tapped his ped impatiently. He had been waiting for a few cycles now, but it felt like megacycles to the young scout.

Glancing around for the hundredth time, Bee grumbled as once again, there was no sight of the triple changer anywhere in sight.

Blitzwing had messaged him the other night, letting Bee know that he had some free time tonight and to meet him in their secret spot. Of course Bumblebee was more than willing to go see his mechfriend, but it seemed Blitzwing was running late. _Very_ late.

The one time Blitzwing called him out here for a date night and he hasn’t even shown up yet!

“The one time you call me out here, and you’re not even here yet!” Bumblebee fumed, kicking a rock away. “Come on Blitz, don’t make me stay out here all night. I got to get back to base before morning!” Bee gazed up at the sky, straining to see a jet with tank treads flying against the dark sky filled with stars.

When his search turned fruitless, Bumblebee sighed, sitting himself down on the ground next to the lake. They both knew of the risk sneaking out at night away from their respected bases, but the two hardly cared. Blitzwing had deeply missed Bee when he went missing all those stellar cycles ago and the pair wanted to spend as much time together as they could.

It was never enough in Bee’s option.

More than once either Bee or Blitzwing or both would be called back to their teams just when they were meeting up. Too many times they had to leave too soon and it tore Bee apart inside that he just couldn’t spend just a little longer.

Well, not tonight. Tonight was date night, and Bee was determined to have a great night with his mech!

Looking at his reflection, Bumblebee wondered if he looked good enough. There had been plenty of activity in Detroit lately, keeping Bumblebee and his friends busy for the last couple of solar cycles. Just the small things, but enough to keep alert over.

Bumblebee inspected every nook and cranny he could see on his face, making sure nothing was smudged or covered in dirt or any part of his paint chipped. Blitzwing hardly minded how he looked, but Bee liked to put in the effort to look nice for his triple changer.

Bee peered closer to the water, looking carefully at his optics for any flaws. The bright glow of blue reflected on the water, softly casting light on the waves that mirrored the sky high above Bumblebee. The moon was out, round and full with its light shining in the sky. It was nice, Bee figured. Blitzwing had suggested that if they could, he would take them to the moon.

Bee wonder who the view of Earth would look like on the moon.

“BOO!”

Bumblebee let out a high pitched scream, literally jumping so high he landed in the cold water of the lake. When he surfaced, Bee shot a hot glare at the laughing triple changer. “BLITZWING!”

“Zat’s me~! Zee mech of jour dreams!” Blitzwing locked his digits under his chin, fluttering his optics as he stood on one ped before bursting out in another fit of laughter. “Oh jou zhould have zeen jour face Hummel!” Blitzwing kneeled down, putting his faceplate Close to Bee’s. “It vas priceless!”

Bee glared at his laughing mechfriend. Raising one arm up, Bumblebee slammed it on the water, sending a spray of cold lake water into Blitzwing’s grinning face. The action did little against the large bot, but it certainly caught Blitzwing off-guard.

Bee grinned smugly at Blitzwing’s surprised face before the triple changer’s optics narrowed and his ever present grin grew wider. A cold pit formed in Bee’s tank as Blitzwing stood and took a couple steps back.

“What Blitz what are you-Blitz? Blitz? What are you-No! No Blitzwing, BLITZWING DON’T—” Bumblebee scrambled to get out of the lake just as Blitzwing charged forward and jumped up high.

“ _BANZAI!_ ” The triple changer screamed, plunging right in the center of the lake and causing an explosion of waves to come crashing down on the screaming Autobot.

When the pair surfaced, they shot each other looks before bursting out in fits of laughter.

“That was awesome Blitz!” Bee exclaimed, moving towards the triple changer with huge grin on his face. “Do it again?”

Blitzwing’s face shifted to Icy, making a soft hum as he reached out and pulled Bee close to his chest. “Maybe later.” The Decepticon smiled down at Bee, placing a quick kiss on Bee’s forehead.

Bumblebee was quick to return the gesture, wiggling out of Blitzwing’s grasp and climb up on his shoulder. He held on tight as Blitzwing shifted to a stand, disturbing the water around him as he moved towards land. “So.” Bee idly kicked his peds. “Did you miss me?”

Blitzwing rolled his optic, but couldn’t hide his smirk. “Jou know I always miss jou.”

“I know. Just making sure you haven’t forgotten your favorite mech.”

 _Whirr_. “Mmmm, I vouldn’t zay jou’re my _favorite_ mech.”

Bee pouted, carefully shifting himself to the back of Blitzwing’s helm and leaning over it so he was looking into Blitzwing’s optics upside down. “Come on Blitz, you know you like me.”

“Mmmmmmmaybe. Or maybe not~.” Blitzwing grinned at Bee’s pouting face, stepping up on soggy land.

Bee laid his helm on top of Blitzwing’s, pressing it flat against the cool metal. “You’re a complete nightmare sometimes Blitz.”

“But jou ztill love me~.” Blitzwing cooed. Bee lifted his helm and smiled.

“Yeah. I do.” He slid down Blitzwing’s shoulder, letting the larger bot help him down. “So how’s it been going on your side lately Blitz?” Bee asked, taking hold of Blitzwing servo as the pair began walking. “Anything going on that I should know? That you can share at least.”

Blitzwing face switched back to Icy, humming as he looked up at the stars. “Vell, aside from zee usual Decepticon zing, not much I’m afraid.” _Whirr_. “Lugnet is ztill a Dummkopf!” _Whirr_. “And I’m ztill dating my cute Hummel~! AHAHAHA!”

“When are you going to stop calling me cute? I’m not cute!” Bee huffed, but that only made Blitwing laugh harder.

“Because jou are! Jour cute and I love it!”

“Oh come on! You’ve known me for nearly nine thousand stellar cycles! Can’t I be anything but cute to you?”

“Nope!” Blitzwing giggled, bending down and placing a kiss on Bee’s cheek. “Jou’ll always ztay cute to me, from zen to now.”

Bee huffed, but couldn’t stop the growing smile on his faceplate.

The pair walked quietly for a moment, enjoying each other’s company they rarely got these past couple of solar cycles. They hardly saw each other beside the few conflicts between their two teams, and even then it wasn’t enough for the pair.

Hearing Blitzwing’s face change, Bee glanced up and smiled at the calmer personality. “Bulkhead started on a new painting the other day. I can’t tell what it is yet but I think the big guy is getting better!”

“Really?” Blitzwing cracked a small smile on his normally stoic face. “Vell zat’s good to hear. It’s nice to know zat jour friend’s hobby is improving.”

“I know right?! It’s not perfect, but you can really see the improvements from his last couple of art pieces!” Bee’s smile grew as he kept talking, talking about his day and what he and his team have been up to over the last couple of solar cycles.

Blitzwing listen to Bee as he talked, nodding his helm and asking a few questions at the right appropriate moments, but mainly stayed silent and listened to his Hummel. This only prompted Bee to talk more about things he had watched or seen recently.

Date nights were always random and usually not as quiet and calm as this. But whether it was a calm night or night which they did chaotic stupid things together, it only matter in the end if Bee and Blitzwing were together.


	39. Hunt Gone Wrong (SwinLock)

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

Those words repeated in his processor, silently screaming at no one and anyone around him. Organics, or humans as they called their species on this planet, all moved and talked and walked all around Swindle, openly mocking him as they passed by without a single clue to his predicament. Anyone who spared a look at him only saw a trapped good looking Hummer and not a trapped good looking Decepticon.

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

Swindle tried to scream out, but nothing passed his sealed intake. Not a single verse, word, sound, or any type of noise could be heard from the trapped S.U.V. Not a single part of Swindle was capable of moving. None of his systems were online to call for help or alert anyone of his predicament. He was trapped in his own body, incapable of doing anything but think and silently rage.

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

Nothing could compare to the rage he was feeling being trapped in vehicle mode. Nothing in the universe could possibly come close to how furious he was for the situation he was stuck in right now. Forget how many times he saw Lockdown in complete fury, his was beyond measure! He couldn’t even comm the blasted bot for help!

Though given his track record for getting into danger, Lockdown was bound to be on his way to save his aft soon anyway.

And more than likely to give him a long hard chew out for not being careful. _Again_.

But it wasn’t his fault this time! It had been that blasted yellow Autobot’s fault! He shouldn’t have been able to move while the machine was active! That bot should have shut down like all the other machines in the city! Couldn’t he have waited till _after_ Megatron bought the device first?!

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

Swindle fumed, though no one would be any wiser as all he was to them was car that didn’t even work. Despite the one human’s threat of cutting him open and selling his parts to auction, the threat was kind of pointless when all the cutting tools they used did little to his plating. He paid good money to get his armor the way it was and he made sure it lasted. They couldn’t even get under his hood.

But since they figured _that_ little part out, they left him stranded outside with other cars completely unguarded with just a clamp on one of his wheels. Outside! Completely unguarded! With only just ONE clamp! Not only was this the most undermining excuse of prison, the humans were surely lacking foresight of the possibility of him getting rescued. The only between him and freedom was a high fence. Lockdown could easily shove over it and get the clamp off no problem.

Still, would it at least _kill_ them to put him in shed or put a heater inside him?! It was cold outside, and Swindle HATED the cold! If he could, he would be shivering at the dropping temperatures at night. Some part of him thought they were being just cruel with his treatment. Yes he was stuck as a vehicle, but he was still very aware of the things around him!

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

_It wasn’t supposed to end like this!_

_It wasn’t supposed to end like thi—_

Plip

If Swindle could move, his whole alt mode would have jumped. The Decepticon was startled as something wet and cold slid down his front window. He didn’t have time to think about it as his window as hit again before his whole frozen body was being hit by the cold wet feeling.

Panic seized his spark, realizing that liquid was falling from the dark sky above him. His silent screams of rage quickly morphed to silent screams of terror. He hadn’t been on this planet for that long, nor did Lockdown ever mention such a thing as _weather_ on this large lump of rock! If the weather here was anything like all the other planets that had them, than the liquid that was falling from the sky was sure to be filled with acid or some other burning metal melting stuff!

Those were not fun times for Swindle!

The black market bot was in a state of panic, imagining himself slowly melting away into nothing but a purple and gold puddle. Thoughts of unsold weapons he still had stored away crossed his processor, all the profit he could be making and regretting not spending enough time with his favorite bounty hunter or properly disposing his little temporary lackeys.

It took longer than he would have normally notice while panicking to realize that he wasn’t melting. Into fact, all he was doing was getting wet. When it settled into his processor that literally nothing bad was happening to his frame, Swindle sighed inside his head. Well that was certainly _not_ something he wanted to find out by surprise.

And he did not like the feeling of getting wet.

He had plenty of wax to clean himself with thank you very much.

But sadly, no one was around to hear his complains. And even if there were someone around, he couldn’t really tell them of his woes being stuck like this. So, Swindle just had to grin and bear it.

Try as he might to ignore the falling water from the sky, Swindle slowly found himself listening to it. Since he had nothing better to do, all his thoughts were so occupied to listening to the soft pitter patter around him. It was not a new sound to him, yet Swindle found himself being pulled into a sense of lull by the sound.

The sounds of water hitting against him and all the objects around him sounded somewhat original to him. Very soothing in a sense. Swindle didn’t normally stop to listen to the world around him, but when he did, he enjoyed the quiet noise surrounding him. It was nice to kick back and enjoy these small things.

It was… nice. Very nice and kind of peaceful.

Swindle.

Swindle.

“Swindle.”

Swindle jumped as something grabbed his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. Turning his helm, Swindle met Lockdown’s gaze.

“Ya okay there? Ya looked like you were spacin’ fer a moment.”

Swindle blinked, turning his gaze to the weather pouring outside the little cave they were hiding in. Right. He remembered now. Lockdown had been hired to track down a bounty close by on another planet. Since he was his _technically_ hired bodyguard, the hunter dragged Swindle along with him to keep an optic on him. And not repeat last orbital cycle’s incident.

It wasn’t his fault that he somehow managed to get stuck between two bits of thick stone wall while Lockdown was away! There just happened to be a piece of metal that looked really tasty that was out of his reach and the space was smaller than he realized when he tried to squeeze in there! His shoulder pads just got lodged in the hole and had him stuck there till Lockdown came back and got him out!

Though the hunter did laugh the whole time he help Swindle out of his new predicament.

Still though, he guessed this was alright. He was used to being dragged on a few of Lockdown’s hunts. It was quite thrilling sometimes to see Lockdown at work taking down bots ten times his size that were more deadly and dangerous than him.

This particular hunt was a big shot killer. One that killed every bot in their path, but if paid right, they would take down big names as well. From what Swindle could gather, this bot was once a Decepticon who was in the war. Apparently this bot got a huge kick for killing that when the war ended, they went rogue and went around killing bots in their path till they were driven to the outskirts of Cybertronian territory.

Swindle had stayed best out of the places the crazed bot was rumored to be in, though lately it seemed that bot was getting bold and moving closer to populated planets. Already the deranged bot had wiped out a whole settlement, and moving on to bigger things to kill. Concerns and worries were high, so Lockdown was called on to take care of the situation.

Normally the merchant wouldn’t have batted an optic at dead bots or deranged killers (unless said deranged killer was sent to kill him), but Swindle could see where the concern was coming from. And he honestly would feel a little safer without a psychopath running around killing everything in their path. Considering that he had his own sparkling on the way, he would want the universe just a tad bit safer from his young one to grow up in.

“Swin?” Swindle blinked, focusing back on Lockdown.

“O-oh, sorry. Just… thinking.” Swindle tried brushing Lockdown’s servo off his shoulder, but the hunter kept his grip on him.

“’Bout what?”

“You know… things.” Swindle shrugged. “About life and…” He shifted his gaze away, glancing out the small cave they were hiding in. Lockdown didn’t trust him alone on his ship with a bunch of unguarded dangerous weapons… wasn’t his fault that his cravings got the better of his common sense. And he only bit on the barrel of the gun, wasn’t that much to freak out over. “… thinking about stuff I probably should have put more thought into.”

“… The rain always does make ya a bit sentimental.”

“I can’t help it okay?” Swindle looked back at Lockdown with a small grin on his face. “Cybertron never had weather, so could you blame me for liking the sound?”

Lockdown rolled his optics as Swindle continued. “I mean it’s just so hard to find peace and quiet these solar cycles. Everyone is just moving along trying to get everything done when they could just stop and relax now and then to enjoy the little things that make you happy. Take you for example! Everyone sees you as a big, scary, devilishly handsome, factionless go to bounty hunter who everyone in the whole universe knows and fears about next to the old warmonger and… w-why are you looking at me like that?”

The hunter had a grin on his face. A big, slag eating grin that was never a good thing to see on his faceplate. Especially one that he was wearing so casually. “Devilishly handsome?”

Swindle stared at the hunter till he realized what he had said, heat flooding to his faceplate till it burned. “S-Shut Up!” Swindle turned his helm, but that only prompted Lockdown to burst to laughing. It was deep. It was creepy. It fit Lockdown well.

No it didn’t.

Yes it did.

Swindle cursed in his helm. Damn Lockdown! He was making it hard for Swindle to stay afraid and away from! Over the last couple of orbital cycles, he and Lockdown had started to get close again. Not close as they were before, but certainly getting close enough that Swindle was finding himself getting comfortable around Lockdown again when he knew he shouldn’t. But Lockdown was making it hard for him to stay away from, and even harder to kill the lingering feelings trapped inside him. It was almost as if things had hardly changed between them.

Something Swindle knew was only going to be temporary once Lockdown found out about being the sire of his sparkling.

The merchant frowned, placing a servo over his chest. More than once Swindle wanted to tell Lockdown the truth about the sparkling, but each time he tried he quickly lost his nerve at the last nanoklik. The thoughts of Lockdown’s reaction when he first found out about the sparkling always seemed to pop up in his helm just when he was finally going to tell the hunter the truth about the sire. To Swindle, it was first real glimpse of Lockdown’s true feelings towards him.

Feelings Swindle should have weren’t really there all this time. It was clear to Swindle that Lockdown only liked him for the gain of mods and a good time. All those sweet words, those sly glances, and soft touches. All of it was a lie that he fell for hook line and sinker. Lockdown didn’t mean any of it and probably never would.

And that was fine for Swindle.

He gotten along fine without Lockdown before, he was certain he could get along fine without him. He just needed to get away from him and—

“Yer shakin’.” Swindle jumped, looking back at Lockdown impassive gaze on him. Impassive. _Ugh_. He really hoped the kid wouldn’t be so uptight like Lockdown and took more after him in personality and appearance. Though that would be a problem if they turned out to be just as greedy as him and—

Something heavy and rough covered Swindle view. The merchant panicked a moment, failing his arms and grabbed the item obscuring his view. Pulling it off his face, Swindle saw the offending item was Lockdown’s poncho. Swindle shot Lockdown a questioning look, finding the hunter inspecting a gun he brought along for the hunt. “W… why are you giving me this?”

“Wear it.” Lockdown commented, checking the ammo. “Yer shakin’s gonna give away our position.”

Swindle gave the hunter a pointed look. “I’m not shaking.”

“Ya were.”

“No I—”

“Swin, I ain’t gonna argue with ya n’ I’m in no mood to.” Lockdown cut Swindle off, sending the smaller bot a small glare. “So jus’ wear that till the hunt’s done n’ we can get back ta the ship.”

Swindle stared at Lockdown a moment before huffing, draping the poncho over him till he was covered from his shoulders to his peds. The arm’s dealer pulled a face. It was a bit too big on the merchant, and the color looked awful on him.

“Look’s good on ya.”

“Shut up.” Swindle glanced outside, watching the rain fall. The planet they were on wasn’t a populated one, yet several sources had spotted Lockdown’s target on this planet. Though calling it a planet was putting it in a nice way. It was more like a large barren grey rock than a planet. It had a few trees spread out all over, but not enough to make a thick cover to hide away in. Though thanks to the thick fog and heavy rainfall, it was hard to see anything clearly, even with the best gadgets Swindle had on him.

And somewhere out there was a bot bent on killing everything in their path at a scary fast rate.

Swindle frowned deeply, looking out from the corner of his optic to look at his companion. Lockdown was finishing his preparations for the hunt, having the look of laser focus on his faceplate. The hunter slung the gun, a Hyper 7 X/E Gyro Bazooka, over his shoulder. That gun was powerful and deadly, but it was only good for one shot and needed time to recharge before firing again, so it forced the user to use careful aim and calculated timing. Not usually a weapon of choice for Lockdown to use often for a hunt for bringing in bounties.

But that was the thing.

Lockdown wasn’t hunting them to bring them in.

He was paid to **kill** this bot.

Not surprising in Swindle’s option. The bot certainly didn’t show any signs of turning their self in quietly or going down without a fight.

What was surprising however was the fact that a Decepticon of all factions hired Lockdown for the task. Why? Swindle didn’t honestly know.

Still, Lockdown’s client was paying high time to get rid of the bot. A lot more than Swindle expected for one bot to be hunted down and killed for. But money was money, and it was plenty more than enough to convince Lockdown to take the job.

“Should be a quick job.” Lockdown edged closer to Swindle, glancing out the cave. “One good shot ta the spark outta be ‘nough ta take ‘em down.”

The merchant’s cheeks filled with warmth again, scooting just a tad away from Lockdown. “If you can get it one shot that is. That gyro bazooka is hard to aim with, even for a big highly trained bot like yourself. What if you miss on the first shot?”

Lockdown shot Swindle that cocky smirk again. “Ya worried ‘bout me Swin?”

“W-wha?! N-No!” Swindle sputtered. “There’s only one ship working on this planet and it only works for _you!_ ” Swindle turned his helm away in a huff. “… and big ships like yours makes me feel lonely if no one is there with me.”

“Aww~ Ya _do_ care!”

“No! I! GAH! You’re impossible!” Swindle growled, crossing his arms over his chest as Lockdown let out another bark of laughter. The merchant shot the mercenary a nasty look. “Don’t you have a bounty you should be hunting right now?”

Lockdown humped, gazing back out the mouth of the cave. “None of the sensors have gone off yet. Could be a while ‘fore somethin’ goes off.”

“Oh _how prefect_.” Swindle snide in sarcasm. “So I’m assuming we’re stuck here for who knows how long then?”

“Essentially.”

“ _Great_.” Swindle huffed, getting comfortable. He tensed when he felt Lockdown taking a seat next to him. He spared him a small glance before quickly turning his focus back on the rain.

There was silence between the two, uncomfortably thick and heavy. Swindle kept sparing glances at Lockdown, tapping his digits together quietly under the poncho. It smelled nice. Smelled like that detergent he gave to Lockdown for free. Or did he use the detergent because he couldn’t stand the smell while wondering if Lockdown sense of smell had gone bad?

He gave the poncho a whiff. It smelled like vanilla mixed with that new car smell. It smelled nice. No it didn’t. Yes it did.

“Swin.”

“Hm?” Swindle turned his helm slightly, not enough to face Lockdown fully, but enough to see the mercenary with one optic and let him know he was listening.

Lockdown was looking at him. Those red optics of his boring into his. Swindle always thought red suited Lockdown just fine. Gave him a more menacing appearance along with his towering height. Something he got from his creators, though Swindle could guess both of those aspects of height and red optics were given to him by his Decepticon creator than his Autobot one.

Though if Lockdown was half Autobot half Decepticon, and he was a former Autobot, would that make their sparkling three fourths Decepticon and one fourth Autobot? Or three fourths Autobot and one fourth Decepticon?

He really needed to have the kid checked over once it emerged.

“Do… do ya have any names figured out?”

Swindle turned his helm more, his optics widening a bit by the question. Names? Why would he… oh! Oh right. Names for the sparkling. “N… not recently.” Swindle gave a shaky smile.

“Ya have thought of somethin’ ta call ‘em right?” Lockdown looked at him with one optic ridge raised higher than the other. “Ya spent all this time carryin’ ‘em n’ never _once_ did a name cross yer processor?”

“W-Well I had a lot on my mind! Names were really something to think about when you have business in high demand!” Swindle protested, but the Lockdown’s narrowing optics killed his words in his mouth.

“… you’d put yer business ‘fore your own kid?”

“ _Look_.” Swindle tried to regain his nerve. “My type of business is hard to do okay? Especially dealing with dangerous bots! One wrong move and this kid won’t even have a chance to say its first beep!” His own words felt heavy on his glossa, dragging it over the back of his denta. “I… I just need to take care of the more dangerous deals first. They’re the ones I needed to focus on being more careful with. I can’t just up and cancel deals with them, not unless I want all their little friends sic on me. After that, I can focus more on my kid without someone putting a gun to the back of my helm.”

Lockdown stared at him a nanoklik before letting out a sigh. “Fair ‘nough.” He was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Ya know ya gotta think of a good name fer ‘em.”

“I know.”

“Ya can’t call ‘em kid forever.”

“I know.”

“Though I guess since ya are much older than they are, I guess callin’ ‘em kid really wouldn’t—”

“I’m not _THAT_ old! For Primus sake I’m only a little over four billion stellar cycles! That’s still pretty young!”

Lockdown let out a snort, a small smirk twitching at the corner of his intake. “Whatever ya say ya old grouch.”

“I’m not old!”

Lockdown let loose another bark of laughter. “Are too! Yer only younger than me by a thousand stellar cycles or so but yer still old ‘nough!”

“Well that makes you old too Frankenstein!”

“Yeah, but I’m still spray Brickhead!”

“Frager!”

“Cheapskate!”

“Tiger Face!”

“Big Optics!”

“Hook Hand!”

“I think that was almost an insult right there Mr. ‘I Snuggle With Bots When I Recharge’!”

“Coming from the bot who hates eating bitter things and prefers sweets Sir ‘Sings And Dances Like An Old Bot Fool When No One Is Looking’!”

“Ha! That was almost a good one! But maybe ya should try—” Lockdown paused, snapping his helm to look outside. Swindle’s smiled faltered, watching the bigger bot go tense. Before he could ask, Lockdown got up, hoisting the gun over his shoulder. “Somethin’s close.”

Swindle peeked outside. “How close?”

“ _Close_.” The hunter moved towards the mouth of the cave, narrowing his optics. He paused a moment, looking back at Swindle. The pair held their gazes with one another. Swindle opened his intake to say… something, but Lockdown turned his helm away. “Stay here. I’ll check it out.”

With that, the bounty hunter was gone.

Swindle watched as Lockdown’s form disappeared into the thick mist and rain, lifting his servo up before placing it back down.

“… be careful.” Swindle muttered under his vent, getting comfortable as best he could. His gaze never wavered from the cave’s mouth, placing a servo over his chest where worry was pooling inside his spark. Lockdown had done this over a million times, yet Swindle couldn’t help the small pinch of worry that followed after the hunter when he went after dangerous bots.

Swindle frowned, digging himself a little deeper in the poncho for warmth. He knew Lockdown was a very capable bot, he had the reputation to show for it. Yet.

There had been some incidents where Lockdown was out matched in power and skill. Those weren’t many, but they did happen. More than once Lockdown had been beaten at his own game and hunter either fled from the fight, or was taken down and put into custody.

And a few times Lockdown had come out of the fight with serious injuries.

The first time the merchant saw that happened, Swindle had a swell time chewing out Lockdown as he patched the hunter up as best he could. That should have been an only time between them, but time and time again Swindle had walked in on the hunter patching himself up or Lockdown would drag himself into Swindle’s current shop covered in cuts and leaking energon everywhere. Lockdown tried to brush off his worry, but Swindle wouldn’t have having his favorite mech die on him.

_… Damn it!_

Now he was worrying about the mech! Cut it out! He didn’t like Lockdown! He didn’t! That bot could go die for all he cared about!

Swindle’s helm twitched at sound in the distance. Most would pass it off as thunder, Swindle’s trained hearing could notice the sound of gun fire anywhere.

Seems like Lockdown found his target.

Good for him.

Swindle sighed, closing his optics and waited for his comm to turn on with Lockdown’s voice coming through. In turn Swindle would roll his optic, share a few words with the hunter then get up to find him…

One optic opened slightly, frowning as the nanokliks ticked by yet there was no call from Lockdown, Swindle waited. And waited. And waited.

His digit tapped on his arms as the nanokliks drew out, becoming a full cycle. He kept glancing at the mouth of the cave, ~~hoping~~ thinking Lockdown would just appear if he kept staring at it long enough. Another cycle. No Lockdown. No call.

_Calm down. Calm down._

Another cycle. Still no Lockdown. Still no call.

_He’s just late, that’s all._

Another cycle. Still no sign of Lockdown. And still no call.

Swindle waited up to twenty cycles, starting to wonder if Lockdown had just abandoned him on this empty planet, when lightning flashed outside with a rolling loud thunder crashing down. He almost missed it, but Swindle could hear a distinct difference at the end of the thunder.

A gun fire going off.

Swindle was on his peds, moving before he even thought of what he was doing and ran out into the weather. The rain was coming down on him, already drenching his form through the poncho as he ran towards the closest scanner Lockdown had set down earlier. He remembered where it was, he remembered where _all_ of them were, he helped after all so finding them in this weather should be easy.

Right?

He wasn’t running for long before spotting a shadow coming towards him. To his relief it was Lockdown, though when the mercenary saw him, his relief died away into panic as the hunter scowled with deep anger on his faceplate.

“What the slag are _ya_ doin’ out here Swindle?!”

The merchant stopped dead in his tracks, cold pooling in his tanks as Lockdown stormed up to him with that angry glare. “… I… I.” Swindle stammered, struggling to come up with the words to speak. Lockdown growled, making Swindle flinch as his servo went up—

_~~—Please Please Listen To Me Lockdown I Can Explain Please—~~ _

—and grabbed Swindle’s arm, yanking him along in a run. “It ain’t safe out here idiot! Why did ya leave the cave?!”

Swindle struggled on his footing as he was pulled along. “W-What’s going on?” He managed to squeeze out the question from his intake. “Didn’t you kill your target already?”

Lockdown didn’t answer, he just kept pulling Swindle along till they hide behind a thick tree. Lockdown peeked out behind it, venting heavily.

It was then that Swindle noticed how banged up Lockdown looked. Deep dents, split armor, slag even his hook was bent out of shape. “Lockdown, what happened?”

The hunter turned his helm, looking at Swindle with those bright red optics of his. There was still anger on his face, but now Swindle could also see another emotion strongly mixed in there. One that Swindle never saw on Lockdown’s face before.

Fear.

“… Lockdown?” Swindle looked at the hunter in shock. Never had he seen the bounty hunter show any sign of fear on his face. “Lockdown what’s—”

“Shh!” Lockdown pressed a digit to his intake, looking out behind the tree and giving Swindle a full view of his back. Swindle’s jaw hung open by the damage to it. “This ain’t worth what that dan’ slaggin’ bot offered.” The hunter hissed, looking back at Swindle with a set determined face. “We’re gettin’ out of here. _Now_.”

“W-What?” Swindle, confused by the sudden turn of events, did nothing to stop the hunter from pulling him along again. “Why? What happened?”

Lockdown turned his helm, opening his intake to speak but his optics snapped up, widening with mute horror and in a blink, pulled Swindle up close to him shouting “LOOK OUT!” and the pair were thrown to the side as something big landed on the ground right where they were moments ago, shaking the ground with such a force Swindle though the Death’s Head had crashed out of orbit.

Getting his bearings, Swindle barely had time to see what was going on before he was being pulled up and behind a tree and having the Hyper 7 X/E Gyro Bazooka shoved in his arms. “When I give the signal.” Swindle looked up at Lockdown. “You aim fer its chest.” The hunter transformed his servo into its weapon form. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Swindle didn’t get a word before Lockdown disappeared. The merchant sat there for a moment, blinking in confusion as his processor tried to comprehend what had happened.

His answer became clear when he heard Lockdown’s chainsaw going off and hitting against something that sounded like metal and something that sounded like a mash of metal, groaning, and gargling liquid reached his audibles. Lockdown was fighting something.

Scooting a bit, Swindle peeked out from behind the tree to get a look at what the mercenary was fighting.

Through the rain and the thick fog, Swindle could barely make out Lockdown’s dark shape in the thick mist. But another shape caught Swindle’s attention quickly. One that had his jaw hitting the ground.

The biggest shadow Swindle had ever seen, about half the size of the Death’s Helm, was clumsily moving about swinging mangled limbs at Lockdown who easily dodged and evaded each attack thrown at him. Swindle couldn’t make out the features of Lockdown’s opponent, but it certainly did not look like a bot to Swindle.

It looked more like a cat… a lizard? A dog? A creature?

Whatever it was, it certainly giving Lockdown a hard time.

The merchant flinched as the thing swatted at Lockdown with what could be close to a normal looking arm, watching in mute horror as the hunter hit the tree and fell to the ground. Swindle bit his lower lip as the thing moved closer to Lockdown, willing for the hunter to move and get out of there.

His spark skipped a bit when the creature grabbed the mech and lifted him up.

_Lockdown was in trouble._

Swindle jumped when a low beep sounded off suddenly. He looked down at the Hyper 7 X/E Gyro Bazooka, suddenly remembering that he had the weapon.

_Lockdown was in trouble._

Cursing at himself, Swindle jumped out from behind the tree, getting down on one knee and aimed the heavy weapon at the creature.

_Lockdown was in trouble._

Swindle took aim, trying hard to focus on the creature rearing its distorted limb up and not on Lockdown’s panicking face.

_Lockdown was in trouble._

“NOW SWINDLE NOW!” Lockdown cried out just as the beast swung its mangled limb at him.

With a determined gaze, Swindle aimed the weapon right where he figured the monster’s spark to be and fired. The shock from the force sent Swindle tumbling back as the ray from the gun blasted out, cutting straight through the air and hitting directly at the creature’s chest. It let a horrible cry, releasing its hold on Lockdown and tumbled to the ground in a heap that shook the ground and small merchant.

Swindle laid there for a while. His spark beating a mile a nanokilk with energon rushing in his systems so fast doctors would thing he was part Velocitron. When it slowed down enough for him to sit up, he looked at the still form of what was once the monster, spotting Lockdown not far away slowly picking himself off the ground.

The hunter turned his helm and looked at Swindle, gazing at him a moment before that slag eating grin appeared on his face.

Swindle grinned smugly, feeling the silent praise from the mercenary… till the monster starting moving. The merchant watched from the ground as the creature creature’s stature slowly rose to its back legs, standing higher and taller than any other Decepticon Swindle had seen in his life. His optics slowly grew into large saucers as the beast turned its hidden meshed up face to look at him. Mismatching optics of horrible color that Swindle had ever seen, filled with lust for blood and death beneath a thick layer of insanity, were lock on to the smaller bot.

The creature let out a low rumbling growl that made thunder sound harmless, turning to show its damaged chest with a large hole in it.

And discolored spark still beating inside.

Swindle’s spark stopped dead for a moment.

_His aim had been off._

Swindle’s optics were wide with fear as the monster stared him down. Hunger and madness bore deep into his very spark, freezing Swindle right where he laid on the ground.

Faintly he was aware that the gyro gun was shaking in his grip. His digit pressing on the trigger was tight. His spark was beating rapidly in its chamber.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Swindle thought he could hear Lockdown’s muffled yells to run.

Megacycles seemed to pass by slowly but in the split nanoklik Swindle blinked, everything moved in a flash.

The monster lurched forward like a sudden shot, snapping Swindle out of his cold terror daze, quickly turning to get to his peds and run. He only managed a few steps before he let out a strangled gasp and flying through the air, landing in a harsh heap on his face and tumbling to a halt. Not a moment later, Swindle was sent flying again, this time crashing into a tree and sliding down its trunk till he hit the ground.

Dazed and confused, Swindle groaned as he opened his optics, his helm splitting in growing pain as did the rest of his body. His sight was spinning and it took a couple of rests to get his optics to clear.

Though he quickly wished that he hadn’t when he saw the monster towering over him.

He didn’t have time to scream. He didn’t have time to move. He didn’t have time to turn his helm towards Lockdown who was screaming his name. And he didn’t have time to look at the bot who had slowly taken his spark, harshly given it back, then started slowly taking it back again, and say goodbye to him as the monster swung its mangled twisted appendage down on him.

* * *

_“Did you know that purple wasn’t always my favorite color?”_

_Lockdown gazed up from his work bench, casting Swindle a confused glance. “Hm?”_

_Swindle was seating on one of his tables, idly kicking his peds and smiling that Primus forsaken smile of his. “My favorite color. It wasn’t always purple.” The merchant tapped the corner of one of those big optics of his. “Believe it or not, my favorite color used to be teal blue. Not a pretty color I know, but to me it was always something special.”_

_Lockdown rolled his optics, turning back to fixing his_ _prosthetic. “Why are ya tellin’ me this Swindle? If there’s somethin’ ya want ta say, jus’ say it already will ya?”_

_Swindle went quiet. Normally that wasn’t a good sign, but Lockdown hardly cared at the moment and focus repairing the inner workings of his prosthetic arm. Sometimes the hunter wondered why he always stuck with the hook when he had other arms to easily replace it. Maybe he should have taken Swindle offer to upgrade it to useable appendage. Was a hassle having a hook for a servo._

_“Don’t ever do that again.”_

_Lockdown’s helm shot up, turning to look at Swindle in surprise. The arm’s dealer was looking at him with a straight face. Shoulders squared, optics narrowed, and his digits digging into the table. But worst of it all? He wasn’t smiling._

_Swindle always had his intake in a smile, whether he was making deals or just showing off his smugness, that bot’s intake was in some way or form in a smile._

_But to see Swindle not smiling and the serious tone he was putting out… hooo boy._

_“I don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout.” Lockdown turned his helm away, trying to focus repairing his arm._

_“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” The sound of peds touching the ground made Lockdown tense, and he did his best not to show that it did as Swindle moved closer._

_“Still don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout Swin.” Lockdown glance up as Swindle came around his side, looking up into his vibrant purple optics that were glaring angrily down at him._

_“You know! That… thing! That thing you did!”_

_“Yer gonna need more than that Swin. I do a lot of thin’s so yer gonna need ta give me more detail than—”_

_“That Thing You Did At The Prison!” Swindle’s outburst caught the hunter off-guard, jumping when the smaller bot slammed his large servos on the table and disturbed his work. “When you went all glowy and melting stuff under your touch! I-I mean!” Lockdown watched Swindle fling his arms up, his optics going wide in surprise by the behavior the merchant was displaying. “What WAS that?!”_

_The hunter blinked for a nanokilk before it registered in his mind what Swindle was talking about. “… I don’t really know.”_

_“… you don’t know?”_

_Lockdown shook his helm, turning back to his work. “Nope. First time that ever happened ta me. Can’t say I didn’t like it though. It was fun watchin’ everythin’ burn n’ melt ta my touch. Maybe I should find a why ta use it on command n’—hey!” Lockdown tried to make a grab for his limb, but Swindle, being the ever sleazy sneak that he was, shoved the whole thing right into his chest compartment, closing the drawer before Lockdown could grab it. “Ya fragger that was mine! Give it back!”_

_“Not till you promise never to do that freaky thing ever again!” Swindle jabbed a digit into Lockdown’s chest, glaring just as angry at the hunter._

_“Why the slag should I?! It got us outta danger didn’t it?! Save yer slaggin’ aft n’ now ya jus’ expect me not ta use a new awesome up—”_

_“Awesome?! Awesome?! Mister you were running around laughing like a **lunatic**! You were swinging that chainsaw around like a mad bot you almost cut off my helm! Not to mention that when we had a clear get away, you instead went and attacked the nearest group of guards when we could have easily left the place! That wasn’t an awesome upgrade! That was a psychopath high on engex gone mad!”_

_Lockdown took a step back, surprised by the amount of emotion Swindle was yelling at him. Normally he could yell right back at the merchant, but Swindle’s rage kept him quiet with the wild look in his optics that scream at him to shut up and listen._

_“And do you not remember how when you finally calm down that you couldn’t move?! You couldn’t even move a single digit let alone get up and transform! I had to slagging help you drag your sorry aft to your ship and help you pilot us out of there! And after that, you clonked out for almost a full deca-cycle to which I was terrified to think that you went OFFLINE!”_

_Swindle vented harshly, glaring up at Lockdown with those large optics of his, showing his raw emotions that took the mercenary by complete surprise. They stared at each other, one unable to come up with a good argument on the spot and the other getting his spark rate under control._

_Once Swindle got his venting under control, he shot the larger a mech a glare before turning around and huffing. “… I don’t like you scaring me like that. Thought I lost someone special to me when you weren’t responding. I really care about you okay? You…” Swindle gazed over his shoulder to look at him. His optic was back to its soft roundness, yet the anger was still in there. “You really scared me acting like that, and don’t want you going offline because you couldn’t see the danger to it.”_

_Lockdown was silent. He stared at the smaller mech as he looked away from him, completely stunned by the full honesty Swindle had laid out to him. Sure Swindle wasn’t the most honest bot out there, and neither was he, but WOW. When that bot got honest, he got honest hard._

_“… didn’t know it scared ya so much Swin.”_

_The merchant grunted, not moving or turning around as Lockdown stepped up and hugged him from behind. “Didn’t mean ta scare ya like that. Honest.”_

_Swindle was quiet a moment before sighing and sagging into Lockdown’s hold. “You really scared me you slagger. Really thought that you left me.”_

_“Eh.” Lockdown shrugged, laying his neck on Swindle’s shoulder. “I ain’t that easy ta take down. Though gotta admit, that was a pretty drainin’ move. Even if it was kind of fun.” Swindle huffed. “Still, I really didn’t mean ta scare ya like that Swin.”_

_“Well, you did. And I’m scared that if you do it again, you could go offline for real!”_

_“Hardly.” Lockdown squeezed the merchant close to his chest, grinning at him. “With the right tools n’ upgrades, I could possibly master that technic easy n’ use it whenever I want to!”_

_“Okay, you really don’t seem to be focusing on the danger of this… Thing, here!”_

_“Swindle.” Lockdown purred, pressing his helm against the smaller bot. “I know yer worried. But think ‘bout it. If I can manage controllin’ it, think of all the thin’s we can do with it.”_

_“… we?” Swindle’s optics widened, looking at Lockdown questionably. “What do you mean by… we?”_

_“We, as in you, me, couple of banks jus’ callin’ fer us ta break in ‘em. Smooth drinks by the sea, gettin’ some nice warm sun while revelin’ from a successful heist, countin’ all the shanix in yer grasp.” Lockdown smirked as he could see Swindle slowly indulging in the idea. “Think ‘bout it. Would ya really pass up on such a wonderful opportunity?”_

_Swindle was silent, possibly thinking over what the hunter was offering. After a cycle, the smaller mech groaned, reaching into his subspace and pulling out the prosthetic. “Why are you always so good at changing my mind?”_

_Lockdown chuckled, taking back the arm. “Comes with knowin’ ya well Swindle. N’ credits are yer main weakness.” The hunter turned, but felt a pull on his tailcoat, looking over his shoulder. Swindle was holding on to one of his tailcoats, holding it tightly in his servo._

_“Just…” Lockdown gazed up at the merchant. Swindle wasn’t even looking at him, yet his grip was speaking words loud and clear to Lockdown. “… just… promise you’ll be careful with it? I… really don’t want to loose you.”_

_“… sure. I promise Swin.”_

* * *

Red.

For his whole life his view of the world was always tinted in red.

He could see other colors just fine, but it was always tinted in just a bit of red thank to his optics.

He didn’t blame his CNA for giving him red optics instead of blue because red meant power and blue was for wimps.

Red was like fire that burned everything it touched and metal through thick steel.

Red was like a power that was hidden deep inside that needed that right push to come out and unleash its full force.

Red was like his rage that couldn’t contained when it was let loose and wild that sometimes was in his favor while other times it became his deepest regret.

Red was all he could see as he screamed in anguish and total madness at the monster, his Blazing Mode activating on his emotion as he charged.

He didn’t think, didn’t need to cause it was only a distraction and he didn’t need distractions when all he needed was to focus on **_KILLING_** and not the color of _pink pink pink pink pink_ on the monster’s mangled twisted limb of partly melted servos and faces all placed in a horrible display that openly mocked him for thinking to do the same to Swindle when he found out about the spark that wasn’t his and would never be his no matter how much he wished it was because he could never give Swindle that small life he always longed to have as his own for a family that he never had or received love from and wanted to have that longing for a familiar bond.

None of that matter expect to **_KILL_** and **_DESTROY_** the monster that dared touched and harmed Swindle and the unemerged sparkling in him like how he was going to **_KILL_** and **_DESTROY_** the mysterious sire for not caring about Swindle or their kid cause who would do that?

Not Swindle.

Swindle loved and cherished young sparks and would bend backwards for them just to be sure they stayed safe and warm and happy and out of all the dangers of the universe that tried to take away their innocence and wouldn’t budge for anything or anyone trying to harm them not even for credits or any fancy upgrade he could sell for a higher price later while Lockdown would take it after some thought.

Yes he didn’t like sparklings but even he wasn’t that cruel to do something like that willingly to a young spark.

The creature monster thing roared and thrashed in pain as he cut slashed metaled burned it taking off bit by bit so fast it was hard to keep up of how he was doing it so quickly when all in his mind was to **_KILL KILL KILL_** the creature monster thing that _hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt_ Swindle and now he was making it hurt a thousand times worse till it could no longer move and all that was left was that awful colored spark beating away.

It was an ugly color.

Not pretty like a purple purple purple purple with large cat eyes that made him feel lost and secure at the same time staring into them because he found them very beautiful and never told purple purple purple purple that because he was weak to not tell purple purple purple purple his true feelings and lost purple purple purple purple to another mech that tricked purple purple purple purple to have their way with purple purple purple purple and left purple purple purple purple to deal with the problem on their own and he was going to **_KILL_** the bot who did that to his purple purple purple purple like how he was going to **_KILL_** this creature monster thing.

It screamed it writhed it howled in pain yet he kept plunging his saw deep in its horrible colored spark till it finally went out and stayed out like it should.

He vents were heavy and harsh and calming and… dying away till nothing was left but him sitting on the remains of the bounty he was hired to hunt and kill. The body was still warm, or that could have been just from the heat left over from his Blazing Mode.

Primus the thing looked even uglier now. His optics scanned over the remains till he spotted…

_Swindle._

Lockdown jumped off the remains, rushing towards Swindle’s prone form. His poncho he lent him because he knew how much Swindle hated the cold was staining pink.

Landing on his knees, Lockdown hovered over Swindle, not knowing what to do or even sure if Swindle was alive. _Oh Primus he had no idea if Swindle was even alive._

“S… Swin?” Lockdown reach his servo out to Swindle’s face, not like how his optics were closed instead of open like they should be, afraid that if he touched him it would only confirm his worst nightmare.

He gave Swindle’s cheek a little poke, and relief flooded his spark when Swindle _moved_ and _groaned_.

Still alive.

Still alive.

Still alive.

Lockdown sighed, almost chuckling as he cupped Swindle’s face, planting a quick kiss on the merchant’s lips. “ _Ya fraggin’ damn stubborn spark ya gotta stop scarin’ me like this._ ” He whispered tenderly, pressing their helms together before reluctantly pulling away to look at the damage. It was bad from what he could see. Swindle was lucky the thing had missing his spark entirely, but still gave him a pretty bad wound.

Pushing the poncho up, Lockdown opened Swindle chest. His spark was still beating, slow and out of beat, and the littler spark was still there. The hunter chuckled, closing Swindle’s chest and lifting him up carefully. The kid was defiantly going to have Swindle’s strong stubborn streak if it was still online after that. Lockdown was seriously impressed it could survive through all its carrying creation. He was almost excited to meet them.

Sending the signal to his ship, Lockdown clutched Swindle close to his chest. He needed to get Swindle to a medical station quickly. He had the tools on his ship to keep Swindle online, but he needed a real medic if he was going to survive.

He ship broke through the clouds when he felt Swindle shift in his hold, looking down to see those damn gorgeous optics flutter open. “… l… lock?”

“Easy Swin. Save yer talkin’ fer later.” Lockdown quietly shush Swindle as his ship landed, hurriedly walking up the ramp to the inside. “Yer hurt bad n’ ya need help. Don’t know how far a medical station is, but I’ll get ya there as quick as I can.”

“… why?”

Lockdown stopped, looking down at Swindle.

“why you… doing this? wouldn’t be… better for… you if… I off… line?”

Lockdown stared at Swindle in complete shock. “… why the frag would ya think _that?_ ”

Swindle stared at him, his optics dull and not as vibrant as they were supposed to be. “… you… hate me…”

The hunter stared at the merchant for what felt like an eternity before snorting, shaking his helm. “Nah Swin. I don’t hate ya.” He lifted Swindle up till their helms were touching staring into each other’s optics. “I _love_ you.”

Swindle’s optics widen, blinking rapidly at the confession before narrowing in suspicion. “… liar.”

Lockdown only smirked, keeping his gaze in Swindle’s optics. “Do I look like I’m lyin’ Swin?”

Swindle was silent, staring into Lockdown’s optics for a good long while. Whatever he was searching for, he seemed to have found nothing as his body relaxed in Lockdown’s hold, smiling faintly. “… no.”

“Good.” Lockdown huffed, placing a small kiss on Swindle’s lips and continued on his quest to keeping the mech of his life online.


	40. Surprise! (SwinLock)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Blood and emergence in this chapter. Read with cation.

Unease.

That was the best word to use at this point. There was a strong sense of unease inside the Death’s Head, and Lockdown wasn’t liking one bit of it. More than once he paced around the whole ship, room to room, hallway to hallway, front to back, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling off. He tried looking at his trophies, polishing them, rearranging them, sorting them, stacking them or spacing them apart. He tried it his weapons, his mods, and his supplies.

Nothing. He still felt uneasy even after megacycles of doing useless stuff. And it was getting on his nerves.

“You look tense.”

The words were laced with drainage and pain. Dull but still noticeable. Lockdown cast a sharp look over his shoulder. Swindle was sitting up on the table, looking tired, drained, and in pain. He wasn’t smiling, which Lockdown honestly found a little unnerving, and looked about ready to fall over.

With a huff, Lockdown turned his helm away. “Ya shouldn’t be sittin’ up like that. Could reopen your wound.” He set the trophy down, turning to face Swindle fully. “N’ I don’t want ta spend ‘nother two n’ a half megacycles weldin’ ya close again.”

He expected Swindle to laugh, or to chuckle, or make some witty remark. Instead, the mech nodded, easing back down on the table. Raising an optic ridge, Lockdown stepped over to the table. “Usually you’d make some sort of back talk at me by now. You feelin’ alright?”

“… Honestly? Not really…” Swindle sighed, placing a servo over his chest. “Haven’t been feeling okay for a solar cycle or two.”

“… Is it… yer tank?”

“… I don’t know.” His servo slowly clenched, shaking slightly. “… I hope not.”

Lockdown frowned, reaching his servo out and clasping it over Swindle’s. “… We’re still some ways off ‘fore we reach the nearest medical station. Try ta… try ta hold out till then, ya hear?”

Swindle made a soundless chuckle, closing his optics. “You can’t really _‘hold out’_ with these things. If it wants to come out, you can’t stop it.”

Lockdown grunted, removing his servo after giving Swindle a small squeeze. “Better not. I don’t want a squallin’ protoform emergin’ on my ship.”

“ _Fragger._ ” Swindle huffed, covering his face with his other arm, though it didn’t hide the small smirk on his face.

“ _Cheapskate._ ” Lockdown countered, smirking slightly. “… ya think ya can eat somethin’ n’ keep it down?”

“… I’m really not hungry.”

“For slag—it’s been _four_ solar cycles since ya ate anythin’ Swindle! That can’t be good fer ya or the scraplet ya got growin’ in ya.” Lockdown tapped the back of his hook against Swindle’s hood. “Ya at least got ta eat _somethin’._ ”

“I know.” Swindle whined slightly, moving his arm so one optic was visible. “But I really don’t feel hungry and I _really_ don’t want to try eating anything.”

“… are ya sure?”

Swindle nodded.

Lockdown stared at Swindle a moment before venting out slowly, heading towards the door. “I’ll get ya some energon. If ya can’t take more than a sip, I won’t make you drink the rest of it.” He stopped at the door, looking over his shoulder. “Deal?”

“… okay.”

Lockdown stood there a moment before leaving. He knew he didn’t say it out loud, but he was getting kind of concerned for Swindle. The last couple of solar cycles had been stressful, but Swindle seemed to be getting worse than better. The bot refused to eat anything and hardly moved or left the table Lockdown had set him on.

Lockdown was sure it was just Swindle trying to recover from the wound in his side, but another part of mercenary screamed that it was something else. Something important but he couldn’t figure out what. No, that was a lie. He had a clue to what it was, but he didn’t want to be right about it.

The ship wasn’t a safe place, nor was it an ideal place for a sparkling to emerge. It wasn’t clean, it was filled to the brim with weapons and dangerous items that could go off by the slightest touch. Old trophies that still had dry rusted energon spots on them from their original owners. Plenty of objects with sharp rigged edges lying around everywhere. And primarily, Lockdown wasn’t sure if he was ready for a lil’ scraplet running around his ship.

 _Newly emerged sparklings can’t run yet stupid._ Lockdown thought as he entered the storage room of his ship. _Let alone crawl yet. At best, it’ll only keep you up at night with its constant screaming._

A snort cut through Lockdown’s intake, grabbing a cube of energon from the storage tank. _But that’s not what I’m really worried about is it? The kid ain’t the problem._ The mercenary frowned deeply. _It’s Swindle. Damn fragger, he’s not getting any better. If this keeps up, the kid could end up killing him trying to emerge._ He shook his helm scowling. _Emergence won’t kill him… right?_

Lockdown stared at the cube in his servo.

Swindle had nothing but bad luck the moment he got sparked. And while Lockdown would have loved to put most of the blame on the kid, it really wasn’t their fault. If anyone, it was the mysterious sire that started this whole thing. And Swindle’s own bad tendency to draw bad luck to him. Bounty hunters, bad dealers, Elite Guards, all hunting him down for wearing that logo on his chest.

More than once he had offered to cut that symbol off the mech and every time Swindle shot it down. _“Are you kidding me? Do you not realize how much being a Decepticon means for my business?”_ were his words as he so lovingly put it. Before Lockdown pointed out the hassle the symbol also brought him. Really, why couldn’t the merchant just go neutral, like him? No point in having that symbol on him now. Be less of a hassle and no one can really—

Lockdown gasped, dropping the cube and doubled over clutching his chest as a sudden pain bloomed inside. It wasn’t a strong sort of pain, just a dull throb in his spark that lasted for a couple of nanokliks before it fading away completely. The bounty hunter blinked, looking down at his chest in confusion. “… what the f—”

“ ** _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_** ”

Lockdown jumped, tensing as a scream echoed in his ship.

A familiar scream.

Bolting out of the supply room, Lockdown ran as fast as he could back to the main room of the ship. He nearly broke down the door as it slid open.

Swindle was sitting upright on the table, arms wrapped around his chest with optics wide open with harsh vents coming out of his intake. Lockdown rushed over to Swindle, grabbing him by the shoulder with his hook and turning his helm to look at him with his servo. Pain was all over Swindle’s face with large amounts of fear mixing with it.

“Swindle? Swindle what’s goin’ on?” Lockdown tried keeping Swindle steady as his body shook with each shaky vent. Swindle’s intake opened but all that came out was pitiful whines of pain. “Come on Swindle. I can’t help ya if I don’t know—”

“ _B-brooooke._ ” Swindle whined, hissing past the pain. “ _B-broke. I-it… brooooke._ ”

“Broke?” Lockdown looked at Swindle, searching for anything that could give him a clue to what was going on.

And then he saw it.

The grille in Swindle’s middle.

Seeping with bright blue medical grade.

“ _Your Gestation Tank Broke?!_ ” Lockdown screamed. Swindle nodded, whining as Lockdown pushed him back down on the table. “ _Fraggin’—_ I told you ta hold out till we got ya to a medical station!”

Swindle didn’t respond and only tried to curl in on himself. Lockdown’s optics narrowed. Emergence wasn’t supposed to hurt this much right? He didn’t know much about it, but he did know that carriers weren’t supposed to be in too much discomfort unless…

_Unless something was very wrong._

Lockdown cursed, pushing Swindle’s arms away from his chest, opening the panels and immediately seeing the problem.

Swindle’s gestation tank was split wide open with a large hole at the bottom, spilling medical coding and energon down in Swindle’s wiring and circuitry. Below the tank was the protoform, deep in Swindle’s inner workings. It was wedged between complicated machinery and spare items Lockdown had used to patch up the wound to Swindle’s side, pressing against sensitive parts that were causing the merchant’s pain. Lockdown cursed again, reaching his servo inside. His digits brushed against an exposed wiring, not even getting close to the protoform before Swindle let out a scream, activating his servo gun and wildly took aim at Lockdown’s helm.

With quick reflexes, Lockdown grabbed Swindle’s servo and aimed it away just in time. The shot rang out, hitting something by the sound of several things clattering to the ground behind him, but Lockdown had more concerning things to worry about than the mess.

“Calm the frag down Swindle! I’m tryin’ to help!”

“ _Help?! Help?! How exactly are you helping?!_ ” Swindle screamed, trying to move out of Lockdown’s grip. The bounty hunter kept a tight grip on him however, keeping the merchant pinned down till Swindle stilled somewhat, panting heavily.

Lockdown looked at the protoform, frowning deeply when he saw the protoform had sunk deeper down. “… It’s stuck.”

“H-huh?”

“The protoform. It’s stuck deep in yer insides.”

Swindle’s optics widened, trying to look down in his chest. Confusion crossed his face through the pain and worry. “H-how? How did i-it… how?”

Lockdown shrugged, taking a look at the tiny protoform stuck between the circuitry. It was far deep in, and simply reaching in and grabbing it wasn’t going to be an easy task if Swindle’s earlier reaction had any indication of that. He could recognize a few important wires and circuit boards that absolutely must _not_ get damaged surrounding the protoform.

A hiss tore through Lockdown suddenly, clutching his chest as a throb of pain returned, lasting another few nanokliks before fading away. Panting, Lockdown gazed down at his chest, wondering if he was having a spark attack. He quickly shoved that thought away. He could worry about his own health later. Swindle needed help _now._

While he wasn’t a trained medbot, he did have stellar cycles of taking bots apart and putting said part in himself, so he mostly knew the important stuff of what to do and what not to do. Mostly what hurt where the most and which part made them suffer more while dragging it out for megacycles while his victims begged for death. His favorite part was making parts of the bot feel numb in certain parts, making his victim dread the upcoming pain that was to come.

Lockdown reached in again. This time he managed not to touch any of Swindle’s sensitive inner workings, delicately touching the protoform with two digits. It was _wet_. Lockdown shivered a bit, feeling warm energon and medical grade covering his digits, no doubt been heated by Swindle’s body warmth. He couldn’t tell if he should feel disgusted or awed.

Venting slowly, Lockdown tried to grab the protofom, but his digits couldn’t find a solid grip on it. Nor could he reach down further to grab it with his servo as he would need to go deeper in where the sensitive machinery was, and he wasn’t comfortable with the thought of touching those sensitive parts.

“Y-You kn-now.” Lockdown glanced up, raising an optic ridge as Swindle lifted one shaky servo. “I-I never did th-think of a n-n-name for th-them.” Swindle chuckled, though it sounded more like a vented laugh than a real chuckle. “N-not once. Heh. Ki-kind of re-regretting it r-right about n-now.”

“Now? Ya had all this time ta think of one n’ only now yer regrettin’ of not thinkin’ of a name?” Lockdown huffed, smirking a little.

“Yeah.” Swindle chuckled, rubbing his optic. “N-Not really my s-smartest move, h-huh?”

“I’ll say.” Lockdown gazing his focus back on the protoform. “… I might be able ta reach it if I moved some of yer innards. I ain’t gonna lie, it’s gonna hurt.” Swindle’s optics widened slightly. “A lot.” His pupil shrunk.

Lockdown looked up back at Swindle. “I could cut ya open ta get ‘em, but that would risk harmin’ the protoform n’—” The hunter hissed, grabbing his chest as the pain returned in his spark again. It lasted for a few nanokliks longer than before, ebbing away till nothing was left but a dull throb. “… I really don’t trust my skills right now.” Venting a bit, Lockdown looked at the protoform. “… If ya stay still long ‘nough, I can get this done quickly n’ pull it out ‘fore ya know it. Ya think ya can manage that Swin?”

Swindle whined, gripping the table beneath him. “W-Well, I-I don’t really t-trust myself not t-to stay st-still.” The merchant went silent a moment. “… but I-I trust you e-enough.”

Lockdown shot Swindle a small smirk before diving right to work. Carefully as he could, Lockdown moved and shuffled Swindle’s inner workings around as best he could in the small space, mindful not to grab too hard or touch anything that was badly damaged to cause Swindle any pain, slowly making his way down to the protoform below. Some parts he had to use more force than he would have liked to move, flinching whenever Swindle let out a small cry of pain.

Swindle, on his part, tried to make some small talk with the hunter. While Lockdown would have loved the silence to focus on his current task, he knew Swindle was only doing it to distract himself from the pain. There was only limits of how much Swindle could take and still try to hide his discomfort for his image, yet Lockdown knew he was doing it because he was trying to keep calm for both of their sake.

On and off Lockdown had to pause in his work to hiss and growl as his spark flared in pain, venting harshly as he waited it out. He was deeply confused as to why his spark was pulsing is such pain when Swindle needed his help right now, wondering in the back of his processor if he should have seen a doctor more often.

“Alright.” Lockdown looked at his work. Wasn’t much, but he did managed to loosen and move some of Swindle’s inner workings away from the protoform. That was sure to give him more room to reach down and grab it this time. “Should be able ta grab it now. Ready Swin?”

Swindle had his optics shut, venting heavily but managed a small nod.

Wasting no time, Lockdown reach for the protoform… and let out a scream of pain as his spark flared stronger than ever before. He retracted his servo, knocking an important piece of Swindle’s machinery out of place, causing to merchant to yell out in pain and scratch at the table in effortless search for something to grab.

“ _AH!_ Slag! What the! The Frag?!” Lockdown cursed and groaned, holding his chest as the pain pulsed in his spark, lasting longer than the other flares before it. He struggled to open one optic as he heard Swindle whimper and mewl in pain, gazing at the merchant as he grabbed his spark chamber. “Ah slag, Swin. Don’t-don’t grab that.” Lockdown mutter, working through the pain to reach out and grab Swindle’s servos, pulling them away from his spark chamber.

“I’m no good at this, but I know yer not supposed ta touch yer spark durrin’—” A hiss tore through Lockdown’s words, bowing his helm as he struggled through the pain. A glowing light caught his attention, opening his optics to the sight of Swindle spark chamber.

Through the tinted colored glass he could Swindle’s spark beating behind it, pulsing wildly and out of beat. Deep inside it was the smaller spark, moving about wildly inside Swindle’s, shooting up and pushing against the surface of Swindle’s spark that caused the merchant to let out a small scream of pain.

Lockdown grunted as his own spark flared with a pain at the same time. Dang. It was almost as if his spark was flaring in time with Swindle’s spark. He watched as spark went back down, the pain in his spark ebbing away and leaving behind a dull throb.

He had heard of bots sharing pain when a new spark was emerging, something he never looked far into. Just the basic that the carrier went through a state of pain as the sparkling’s spark tried to get out and the sire’s spark sharing energy or something with the carrier, feeling the same pain they felt while helping out or whatever. Other bots weren’t supposed to feel that pain with the carrier unless they were… unless they…

… unless…

“… wait.” Lockdown slowly stood up straight, his servo over his chest. “Wait a fraggin’.” He looked at Swindle, his optics widened as it dawned on him. “ _Wait a fraggin’ nanoklick_.”

He thought back to all the times he tried looking for any information about the mysterious sire. The times Swindle accidentally slipped him some info in a sleepy state after a long solar cycle. Not enough like a name or description, just small little things he liked about the bot. Small things that didn’t add up or remind of him of someone he could track it all back down to. How none of the clients he looked into seemed to catch Swindle’s gaze or make him bat an optic.

Because none of them were **_him_**.

“ ** _THE KID IS_** _**MINE?!**_ ” His scream echoed throughout the ship, pointing his hook at Swindle spark chamber. “This Whole Time?! It Was Mine The Whole Slaggin’ Time N’ Ya Never Told Me?!”

Swindle opened one optic slightly, panting heavily. “O-Oh. So n-now you fi-figured it out, h-huh?”

Lockdown growled, hitting his face with his hook. Of course. _Of course_. Swindle wasn’t _that_ much of an idiot. He wouldn’t just let himself be someone’s one night stand or give himself over to some of his regular customers and get sparked by them accidentally! He _always_ made sure that his tank was bolted when he went out and took all the steps to make sure he didn’t get sparked by anyone he didn’t really trust.

But that was the biggest red flag Lockdown overlooked. Swindle trusted him, and _only_ him, to have his way with the merchant when they got frisky. _Primus_ , they basically had stellar cycles of trading and doing business together that helped build enough trust on some ground level basis to touch _sparks_ together! That itself was a deep level of respect and trust between two bots right there! And thinking back to the last time they were extremely venereal and the amount of time Swindle carried the kid, it only added it up to the basic point the hunter had over looked and had always thought was never possible between them.

 ** _Lockdown_** was the kid’s sire.

Swindle was having **_his_** kid.

“Ya could have jus’ told me blockhead.” Lockdown hissed, refocusing back on the protoform.

“I-I t-tried to, h-hook hand.” Swindle whimpered as Lockdown reached back in, moving the dislocated piece back in place. “B-but you… you h-hit me…”

Lockdown’s servo froze, glancing at Swindle a moment. Their optics meet. Deep red to vibrant violet. Deep pain was all Lockdown could see in Swindle’s optic. Physical. And emotional.

The hunter turned his helm away. “… I was sure I was sterile.”

Swindle let out a small pained huff, closing his optic. “N-Not entirely it s-seems.”

“Didn’t put a kid in ya before with all the other times.” Lockdown gazed at the protoform. “… unless there’s _somethin’ else_ , ya want ta tell me?”

“No.” Swindle waved a servo, which was more like flopping than waving. “N-No, th-this one is the on-only kid y-you put in m-me. If y-you had th-though, y-you would have kn-known.”

“Jus’ makin’ sure.” The bounty hunter said, feeling a bit relieved there were no other surprise sparklings waiting for him somewhere. Lockdown stared at the protoform. The little thing looked nothing like the protoforms he had stolen from the Cyber-Ninja Corp all those stellar cycles ago. He could see bits of features on where a face would be, patches where the special medical grade had fixed up and built the missing pieces that had stopped building and destroyed by the poison.

It looked _tiny_.

It looked _weak_.

It looked _ugly_.

It was _his_.

He honestly didn’t know how to feel about this. A part of him was super mad at himself for not putting the obvious pieces together and at Swindle for never telling him directly that it was his the whole time. Some other part of him argued that he had scared the merchant to keep it a secret and that fault was only his. Another part was fragging **_TERRIFIED_ **learning that the kid was his, not wanting the responsibility of a sire thrown on him right then and there just after learning the truth. And another, smaller, deeply hidden part of him was glad that Swindle hadn’t been sparked up by some random bot.

Shaking his helm, Lockdown reached inside again, managing to grab the protoform this time and getting a grip on it that was firm, yet oddly being gentle at the same time, and gave it a small tug. Swindle flinched, groaning in pain as Lockdown frowned. The protoform was really stuck in there. Shifting a bit, Lockdown tried loosening the area around the protoform, tugging on the limbs carefully occasionally and testing to see how tight it was stuck. Each tug caused Swindle to mewl in pain but Lockdown noted how the merchant had stopped trying to make small conversation with him and was venting rather heavily. The hunter tried not to focus on that. The protoform needed to be removed first.

It hardly budged until Lockdown managed to free one of the arms, loosening the firm hold around the protoform and giving a small bit of room for Lockdown to grab it properly. Wrapping his digits around the tiny abdomen, Lockdown looked at Swindle. The merchant’s face was twisted with pain, coolant running down his cheeks and biting his lips so hard energon was bleeding out.

There were a lot of emotions going through Lockdown’s helm as he stared at Swindle. Some good some bad, but mostly, he didn’t care at the moment how he felt towards Swindle… well no. He did have some care towards Swindle, and when all of this was done and over, they were going to have a nice, long, detailed little chat after this.

Running his glossa over his lips, Lockdown turned his focus back on the protoform. “I’m gonna tug on three.” He didn’t know why he said that, but seemed to be a good enough warning for Swindle. The arm’s dealer invented deeply, digging his digits into the table and steeling himself.

“One… two—” Lockdown jerked his arm, pulling his arm along with the whole protoform out. Swindle let out a high pitched scream, his back arching off the table a few nanokliks before falling back down. Venting harshly for a few moments, Swindle shot Lockdown a hard glare.

“W-what happened t-to t-tugging on _three?!_ ”

“Got it out of ya, didn’t I?” Lockdown huffed. He looked at the protoform in his servo. Dear Primus, it was _tiny_. And it wasn’t because the protoforms he had stolen were all bigger than this one. This protoform was so tiny in his servo, the size of his digits wrapped around the torso appeared large and unreal around the limp body in his grasp. He twisted his servo around, looking at the protoform carefully in the new light.

It seemed to look okay, nothing out of place or damaged from the harsh removal he had to do. Shifting it to the crook of his prosthetic arm, he inspected all the limbs for any flaws or parts not yet fully complete. He made sure to count all the digits on each servo as well just to be sure all ten were there. Everything seemed to be in place and, not including the various patches around the body the medical grade had fixed, it looked normal despite its small size.

There was only one thing missing though.

Lockdown looked at the empty hole inside the protoform’s chest, open and waiting for that spark of life to ignite it. The protoform would stay a lifeless husk, blank and empty till the spark the body had built itself for was inside it. Only problem was that the spark was still inside Swindle.

A strong flair of pain in his spark came back again. Lockdown hissed as Swindle mewled weakly in pain, too tired to even let out a groan. Lockdown rubbed his chest as the pain died down. He had heard that new sparks sometimes dying when they tried to separate for the carriers spark. Something about the new spark trying to get through the barrier the carriers spark put up to protect the small spark and not being strong enough or something.

Well, the kid _defiantly_ wanted out if the pain was any indication. And Lockdown **_really_** wanted the pain to stop already.

But there was one thing stopping all that. One thing that he kicked himself for. And the welding lines in Swindle’s spark chamber only mocked him for it.

“Wh-why isn’t the s-spark out?” Swindle groaned.

“I had ta weld yer spark chamber shut.” Lockdown reach his servo in Swindle’s spark chamber, tracing his thumb over the weld marks. “Yer chamber took some damage but thankfully yer spark didn’t get hurt.” He frowned, giving the lid a good tug. It didn’t even budge. Shaking his helm he removed his servo. “Gonna need ta cut it open to get the spark out of ya.” He looked down at the protoform in the crook of his other arm. “The longer it stays in ya, the more likely chance it’ll die.” His words hung heavy in the air as the importance of the matter weighed deeply on his processor. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem ta open though.” Lockdown gazed up from the blank protoform. “Jus’ need ta—”

His insides grew cold.

Both of Swindle’s servos had grabbed the cover of his spark chamber. His optics were narrowed, filled with something that Lockdown couldn’t identify, with a deep danta gritting scowl on his face. It was a look that Lockdown had never seen on Swindle’s face before, but one he recognized seeing it once before on another bot long ago.

It was the look of a desperate carrier trying to save their sparkling.

_Even at the cost of their own life._

“Swindle! _Stop!_ ” Lockdown reached to stop Swindle, but the smaller bot, filled with so much pain and determination to save his sparkling, let out a loud long cry as he yanked his servo as hard, snapping his arm away quickly and breaking open one side of his spark chamber lid, splintering the glass in his effort and sending a spray of violet colored shard bits everywhere. Lockdown quickly covered the protoform, shielding it from the bits of glass that came flying towards them.

“ _Swindle!_ ” Lockdown glanced up, his optics wide with genuine concern and fear. He jumped forward, grabbing Swindle’s arm that held a good chunk of his spark chamber’s plating in his shaking servo. “I said _stop!_ I’ll—!”

There was sharp sudden pain in his spark again. Stronger than all the flairs put together. Lockdown gasped, letting go of Swindle’s arm and clutched his chest, stumbling backwards till his back hit the second table.

It felt **hot**.

It felt _cold_.

It felt like a thousand long swords were piercing him all at once, tearing him open and apart.

Lockdown wanted to scream, to curse and shout out many things at once, but it was suddenly gone as quickly as it came, leaving him dazed for a moment with a dull throb in his chest. 

He looked up in time to see something he would never forget.

Hovering over Swindle’s spark chamber was a tiny scarlet red spark.

Small.

Bright.

_Tiny._

Lockdown blinked and in a nanoklik the small spark suddenly shot forward like a bullet before the bounty hunter had time to think or move, hitting the protoform Lockdown still held in his arms right in the dead center of its open empty chest, creating a bright flash of light that blinded the bounty hunter.

When the light dimmed, Lockdown opened his optics, chancing a glance down at his arms and… oh.

Cradled in his arms was the smallest, _ugliest_ little being Lockdown had ever laid optics on. Probably the smallest ugliest being he would ever see in his life. The little thing was tiny compared to his remaining servo, fitting in the crook of his arm covered in energon, oil, and blue medical coding that hid most of their true colors. Red line coding were visible under their soft thin black protoform skin, sticking out against the dark colors and the liquids like highlights. Its chest and waist were thin and bulked out at the ends of its limbs. The helm was rounded and its faceplate was as dark as Swindle’s with small beginnings of black face markings around its shut optics that would stay sealed for another deca-cycle or two before finally opening.

If Lockdown was denying being the sire, he would have to be an idiot not to see bits of him in the tiny figure.

It twitched once. And then twice. And then its intake opened and let out the tiniest set of beeps Lockdown had ever heard in his life.

Something tugged at Lockdown’s spark. Something hard and powerful that he hadn’t felt in Primus knows how long. A long forgotten warmth like a small fire flickered to life in his spark, growing stronger the longer he stared at the small being making small beeps cradled in the crook of his arm. He didn’t understand these feelings, not in the slightest bit, but deep in his coding, deep in his very being, he knew he should be feeling these feelings towards this little being. His knees felt weak and he was quickly kneeling on the floor, keeping his hold on the sparkling close to his chest as his spark pounded at each soft noise the little one made.

His good servo slowly reached up, placing a digit in one of her ( _her, her, it was a femm, he had a femm, this was his kid, this was his sparkling, this was his daughter, his little femmling, a cute little femm he and Swindle created together_ ) tiny servos. Her tiny little digits grasped at his larger digit weakly, coating it with fluids and energon, yet refusing to let go. A small rare soft smile was on Lockdown’s face, pressing the tip of his trapped digit to her soft faceplate. She let out a tiny squeak, gripping tighter on his digit, opening her intake wide and biting down as hard as she could on it. Lockdown let out a tiny chuckle, impressed even further that a tiny ugly little new emerged thing like her had such a grip and fiery personality already showing. She was defiantly his kid alright.

“l… lock…”

Lockdown’s helm snapped up. _Swindle_. He forgot about Swindle.

Getting to his peds, Lockdown went over to the head of table, looking down at Swindle. The arms dealer’s face was contorted in pain, looking beyond tired and exhausted. His optics were opened only by a sliver, dim with the last bit of energy still in him with dark circles under his optics. “s… spa… spaark…”

“Easy Swin. Easy.” Lockdown shushed Swindle quietly, taking his servo and placing it gently on Swindle’s cheek, wiping away the coolant from the merchant’s drained face. “She’s alright. Lil’ chest warmer’s fine.”

The light in Swindle’s optics brighten just a bit. His gaze went to Lockdown’s prosthetic arm cradling the small being. The corners of his intake lifted by a sliver, lifting his shaking servos up. Taking this as a hint, Lockdown carefully moved his arms, shifting the sparkling from his arms to Swindle’s, helping him sit up and hold their kid.

 _Their_ kid. Sweet Primus this was _their_ kid. This was **_their_** _daughter_.

Swindle’s face brightened when he saw the sparkling, a small weak smile breaking out across his faceplate. “… so… so small…” Swindle quietly rasped, lifting a shaking servo up and brought it gently against the tiny helm, rubbing his thumb across her tiny cheek. The sparkling shifted in his hold, letting out a small beep and nuzzled into Swindle’s servo, sticking out her glossa. Swindle let out a breathless laugh, coolant building up at the corners of his dimly lit optics. “… so… s-spunky…”

Lockdown nodded, pressing his helm against Swindle’s gently. “Yeah. Yeah she is.”

Despite the pain he was in, Swindle happily chuckled, clutching his sparkling close and giving Lockdown a weak nuzzle. Neither of them vocally acknowledge Lockdown nuzzling Swindle a little back, nor did they acknowledge how Swindle’s weak breathless chuckles sounded happier than ever before.

* * *

It took Lockdown about a megacycle and a half to get everything cleaned up.

He made quick work patching up Swindle, though there was nothing he could do about his spark chamber plate other than sticking the torn piece back on, welding it as best he could without harming Swindle’s spark, and wrapping the whole thing to keep it in place. A professional would need to look at it, but it would have to do for now. The sparkling ( _dear Primus he could not get over the fact that he had a kid now. He was still processing that she was his_ ) was easier to clean. One of his rags he used for shining did the trick of removing the gunk off of her and another cleaner rag was used to wrap her up and give back to Swindle’s awaiting servos.

Now Swindle and the sparkling ( _there was no way he was going to keep calling his kid ‘sparkling’ forever_ ) were fast in recharge, trying to recover from the pain and excitement they’ve been through. Lockdown stood quietly next to the table, arms crossed with a rare soft smile on his face. He knew Swindle was still in danger and needed a proper doctor to patch him up, but he was content that the merchant was at least resting after his whole ordeal. He certainly earned it.

They both did.

He made to go to the controls, but he didn’t move very far. His gaze looked back at Swindle and the sparkling. It felt… wrong, somehow. Just leaving them there after everything that happened. He knew it was silly to think that one nanoklik away from them would be bad, yet the thought of it after everything that happened felt just… oddly wrong to him.

He stared at the pair a moment, thinking it over before deciding with a sigh, turning around and carefully slipping up on the table next to Swindle, carefully wrapping his arms around the golden purple mech with the kid tucked safely between them. Swindle grumbled something and the little femm let out a small soft whiny beep as they were shifted in their recharge, but neither thankfully awoke and both quickly settled against Lockdown’s chest as the hunter held them close.

With a soft huff, Lockdown closed his optics, holding Swindle and the kid close to him, letting himself enjoy the warmth being with his… family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! Swindle's and Lockdown's sparkling is here! .................................. (Falls to the ground, happy to get this chapter out on Halloween but regretting not putting more effort in the story to make it better) Happy Halloween everyone.


	41. Finding (BlitzBee)

The strange blob wasn’t looking at her again.

The blob was busy with familiar blob than with her.

No matter how much she whined or beeped to get their attention, the blob gave her less and less attention.

She tried calling out to the familiar blob, the one who was with her since the beginning, but they never appeared.

She could feel them reaching out to her through their bond, but the familiar blob never appeared.

And it was really starting to get on her nerve.

Her limbs flailed about till she managed to roll on her front. She had learned how to crawl a while ago with the help of familiar blob. Shifting around, she started moving forward.

If familiar blob wasn’t going to come to her, then she would just have to go to the familiar blob herself.

It took a few struggles and tries, but soon she managed to start moving. Where to she had no idea.

She only knew that she wanted the familiar blob, and she was going to get to them one way or another.

Moving was a struggle. She didn’t have a complete grasp of moving on her own yet, but she was a very determined/stubborn sparkling.

It was a good thing the strange blob had placed her on the ground, giving her room to explore her surrounding area. Though, it didn’t help that since she had no idea of where to go, and still learning how to crawl properly.

Being only a few orbital cycles old, she was very clumsy moving her little body about. She wobbled over to a blurry thing, having no clue what it was but went with it. Stopping once she was right into front of it, she gazed up at it. Being so young and completely incapable of identifying, she could only gaze up curiously at the blurry object.

To a young spark like her, everything look blurry. Nothing looked different besides sizes and sounds. So like any other young spark, she was naturally curious.

Reaching a tiny servo out, the youngling patted the object. It felt hard under her touch. Cold. Completely different from the warm touch of the familiar blob.

She babbled a bit, patting the hard cold thing that wasn’t the familiar blob. She remembered the familiar blob being hard, but it wasn’t cold. And familiar blob made strange sounds. It always made strange sounds. She didn’t like it when she couldn’t hear those sounds. She didn’t like the no sounds and wanted to hear familiar blob’s sounds again.

Moving again, she went further ahead of the cold blob. It wasn’t long till she bumped her helm against something hard. She let out a small beep of annoyance, blinking at the new blurry thing. It didn’t look so different from the other thing, yet if felt a little different.

She quickly lost interest in it, moving again. The thing in front of her was annoying, so she moved alongside it, following the thing… till she came to a part that wasn’t there.

The little sparkling let out a small confused beep, sticking her helm in the part that wasn’t there. It was dark. She couldn’t see much in front of her.

Yet… it felt warm.

Almost as warm as the familiar thing!

Without caution, she crawled into the part that wasn’t there. It was dark, but she could feel the warmth. Warmth meant she getting close to the familiar blob! She had to be!

The more and more she followed the warmth, determined to find her familiar blob and get those strange noises again, the deeper she went into the dark place. She had to stop a couple of times to rest, but she soon got back to crawling again.

She wanted her warm familiar thing, and she was going to get it!

She continued on her path until she came to a problem. Her way was blocked by something. Pushing and shoving against it did nothing, yet she knew this was the right way. The warmth was coming from this way so she HAD to go this way!

But try as she might, she could move any further towards the warmth. A cry of frustration left her intake, slamming her tiny servos on the thing that dared block her path to the warmth. She continued to yell in beeps at the thing before yawning and falling into recharge against it.

A while later, she was awoken by the emptiness in her tank. Beeping, she got off the thing blocking her path, turning around and started heading back. She didn’t like that she was moving away from the warmth, but she had to go back. There was no food down here and she didn’t like the empty feeling inside of her.

Crawling back should have been easy, but because it was so dark, little sparkling had no idea of where she was going. So she had no clue where she was going, or remembered which direction to go. Or at least remembered that she hadn’t gone down any sloops as she started crawling upwards.

Still, she continued on. Unaware that she was heading in a new direction, the little sparkling crawled up the sloop, crawling through holes she found along the way. It was a while before she found a big hole in front of her.

Babbling in beeps, the little sparkling gazed down, finding a large drop before her. Reaching her little servo out, she started looking for the hard stuff that wasn’t under her, trying to find it yet unaware of her body leaning forward so much that she lost her balance and fell. The femmling squeaked in surprise as she started tumbling down, rolling herself into a ball to protect herself as she rolled down the hill.

The momentum sent her into a new area, one that, when she finally stopped rolling and her optics stopped spinning, was completely unfamiliar to the little sparkling. Everything felt new, and nothing looked familiar to the new spark. And none of it tasted good either!

Beeping out with dissatisfaction, the little femmling decided to move on. There was no food here and the warm familiar thing wasn’t here either! This was turning out to be a bad waking time!

Onward she crawled, completely unsure of where she was even going at this point, yet logic and knowledge was lost to a sparkling who still had a developing processor. It was long before her energy was spent again and she went into recharge under some green blurs.

Sometime afterward, she was awoken when the stuff under her started shaking, and a sound she hadn’t heard before coming closer and closer.

Snapping her optics open, the young spark looked up to see a giant blob storming past her. Frightened, the little spark curled in on herself slightly, watching the blob carefully as it went past her, making odd noises as it went.

“Ztupid Dino-zings! Ztupid Forest! Zupid Autobot Medic!” The blob grumbled, yet to her it was only making noise and odd sounds. It was big, loud, and frightening to the young spark, who was hungry, tired, scared, and deeply longing for her warm familiar blob right about now.

Everything had been stressful to her. So much so, that with everything happening around her, she had no way to deal with it all.

So she began crying.

Loud and strong.

Crying always made her feel a bit better, getting all her bottled up emotions let out for everything to hear around her and let them know something was wrong. Maybe if she cried loud enough, her familiar blob will finally come back to get her?

While she cried, she didn’t notice the big blob stopping. Or see it turn around slowly and move back towards her. She was so busy crying, she had no idea that she had alerted the big blob of her presence there or that it was heading towards her. Not till she felt herself being picked up.

Sniffling, the femmling blinked her coolant filled optics as she gazed up at the new blob. She still didn’t understand colors, so she had no idea she was looking into a pair of glowing red optics. She stared at them, wondering why the color felt so familiar to her when the blob started making odd noise. Noise that sounded like what she made when she started cry, only this was far deeper.

A pull in her spark made her aware of something special about this blob. Something she was still too young to understand properly, but could feel that it was something she had to hold on to. Lifting her servos up, she made grabbing motions at the blob, babbling in sparkling talk.

The blob stared at her for a while before bring her closer, letting her tiny servos touch a hard slightly cold something. She beeped in curiosity, her little digits tracing over the touch till she felt something wet. She beeped out a small huff, patting at the wet spot before getting huffy and tried to eat it. Only she ended up putting her own servo in her intake.

The blob made an odd noise, shaking its whole form as it brought her closer, nuzzling the side of her helm. Though she didn’t know the word to the feeling, she immediately recognized the action as affection and clung to it quickly before it was gone. It had been so long since she had felt it, and she was going to savoir this feeling as long as she could, even from this crying big blob holding her.

The pull was still there, but it felt warm and comforting to the small spark. A familiar feeling. One similar to the other warm familiar blob, yet different. One she had felt before a long time ago before it suddenly went away. She didn’t understand it, yet she felt safe with it.

What the sparkling didn’t realize was that it was a big moment right then. Completely unaware that this was her first time meeting her sire and how big of an impact she had on him that very night.


	42. Would You? (ShockBlurr)

Blurr glanced up from his work as he heard the front door slide open. He blinked as his sparkling walked, or rather stomped, past him without so much of a greeting or sign of acknowledgement towards him.

He watched as Shockrr headed for his room till his form disappeared behind the door. Confusion crossed his face, turning his helm towards his conjunx as Longarm stepped inside with a look of tired disappointment on his faceplate. “…/do/I/even/want/to/know?”

The disguised Decepticon sighed, shifting out of his Autobot form once the door was closed behind him. “It’s… complicated.”

“Enough/to/make/you/shift/out/of/your/disguise/the/moment/you/get/home?/That’s/certainly/not/good/news.” Blurr set the datapad aside, scooting over to make room for the larger bot. Shockwave sighed heavily, laying down on the metal couch and leaned his helm against Blurr’s offered shoulder, nuzzling against his conjunx as the smaller bot rubbed his digits in slow circles on the back of the spy’s helm.

The pair sat there, enjoying each other’s company they rarely had these solar cycles. Work had become a sort of nightmare for the pair the last two orbital cycles. And a sort of problem for both bots. Something neither bot wanted to address out loud yet couldn’t deny that it didn’t exist.

Blurr wasn’t sure who was taking it better and who was just hiding it. Maybe he was taking it better and Shockwave was hiding his emotions? Or maybe Shockwave was the one being indifferent and he was the one hiding his true emotions? Or maybe they both were hiding their emotions and just pretending to be taking it well?

He wasn’t sure which one was right, but could he really care at this point? Not really. Emotions were a fickle thing between them. Logic was a more stable thing they could rely and trust more on. Something to steady them and look for the right outcome of certain situations.

“Blurr?”

“Hm?”

“… what’s your thoughts about everything recently?”

A frown crossed Blurr’s face. He could sense that that wasn’t what Shockwave wanted to say to him. Humming thoughtfully, he leaned his own helm against Shockwave’s, thinking over the question carefully. “…/honestly?/I/try/not/to/think/about/it/too/much.”

Shockwave hummed, rubbing his helm against Blurr. “I see.” He went silent for a moment before shifting his helm, looking into Blurr’s optics. “The past few solar cycles have been turning in my helm. So much of it I can’t seem to grasp.”

Blurr laid his helm on top of Shockwave’s, moving his digits to the back of his conjunx’s neck cables. “It/is/certainly/a/lot/to/take/in.”

“It is.” Shockwave agreed, shifting his arms to wrap around Blurr’s middle. “It certainly is.” The Decepticon sighed, pulling Blurr close to him.

Blurr snuggled closer to him, closing his optics and enjoyed the warmth Shockwave’s body was producing. His helm was pressed up against the bigger bot’s chest, faintly hearing his spark pulsing behind his thick armor. A small smile appeared on his face, content to just sit there and listen to his conjunx’s spark beat. Sadly though, the thought of his sparkling crawled into his mind. Shockrr’s earlier mood did not sit well for the Autobot. Not with the recent events that happened the last couple of solar cycles ago.

“Shockwave?”

“Yes love?”

“About/Shockrr—”

“Ah, that.” Shockwave moved away a bit, looking down at Blurr. Having spent stellar cycles with him, Blurr could tell what mood his conjunx was showing in his optic. And judging by the dim glow thick pupil, Blurr could see that Shockwave was displeased about something. “It’s nothing to worry over about love. Shockrr and I had a little… disagreement on our way home.”

“Disagreement?/About/what?”

Shockwave sighed, pulling Blurr closer. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I just want to relax and get my helm cleared from recent events.”

Blurr let out a low hum, letting the larger bot lean on him without fear of being crushed.

* * *

_“And that’s what happened. It wasn’t my intent for things to go down that way but… I admit it got a little out of hand for me.”_

_I’ll say._ Blurr sighed, standing in front of Shockrr’s room. Nearly a megacycle had passed and Shockrr had yet to leave his room. Blurr wasn’t sure if this would be normal behavior for bot’s Shockrr’s age. He wasn’t even sure if he ever acted this way when he was at his sparkling’s age. His past… wasn’t very good.

Taking a deep intake, Blurr lifted a servo up and knocked a couple times on Shockrr’s door.

“ _GO AWAY!_ ” Blurr jumped back in surprise. “ _I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU! I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU EVER AGAIN!_ ”

The Autobot stood there for a moment, surprised by his sparkling’s outburst at him. Over the past stellar cycles, Shockrr’s personality was something of a concern to Blurr as the mechling was prone to outbursts. Thankfully they were rare and Shockrr usually kept his temper in check around others, but Blurr still worried about his child accidentally snapping at someone later down the line.

“Uh/Shockrr?/It’s/me./I/know/you’re/not/in/the—” The door slid open a crack. He glanced down, making optic contact with a pair of deep royal blue optics.

“… Oh, c-carrier. It’s just you.” The door slid open all the way, revealing Blurr’s young spark standing behind it. “I-I’m sorry, I thought you were… _someone_ else.”

“It’s/fine/Shockrr.” Blurr smiled, kneeling down to optic level with his child. “So/mind/explaining/to/me/why/you’re/staying/locked/up/in/your/room?”

Shockrr stared at him for a while before turning his helm away, huffing a bit. “Nothing.”

“Doesn’t/seem/like/nothing/if/you’re/hiding/in/your/room.”

“I’m not hiding!” Shockrr huffed again, crossing his arms over his chest. It was then Blurr noticed something. Something that should be there, but wasn’t.”

“Shockrr/where’s/your/symbol?” The young mechling’s optics widened, quickly looking down at his chest before covering the area with his servos.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about carrier! You must be seein—”

“Shockrr.” The little bot stop speaking, seeing the sharp look Blurr was no doubt giving him right now. “Where is your symbol?”

Blurr rarely ever spoke in what other viewed as normal speed, but when he did, it was usually happened when he was having an important conversation with other higher up bots who couldn’t keep up with his speedy talking. Shockwave had taken great time and effort to keep up and understand what Blurr was saying. He wasn’t prefect at it as Blurr would often need to repeat his words again sometimes, the Decepticon really tried hard to keep up. He was getting better over the recent stellar cycles, but a few times Blurr still needed to repeat himself.

Shockrr however could understand him perfectly, no matter how fast he spoke. Probably had something to do with his inherited speed. Speaking in fast sentences was very common between them, so whenever Blurr spoke in a ‘normal’ speed, that usually spelled trouble for the younger mech.

The little mech stared at the ground, refusing to meet Blurr’s gaze. As the nanokliks went by and Shockrr still didn’t give Blurr an answer, the older mech let out a small sigh. “Do/you/still/have/it/with/you?” A beat passed before Shockrr nodded his helm slightly. “Are/you/going/to/put/it/back/on/any/time/soon?” When the silence dragged on, Blurr bit back a groan. This was going to be one of _those_ solar cycles.

“Alright/then.” Blurr stood up, patting his knees. “Since/we/all/seem/to/be/in/a/bad/mood/this/solar/cycle,/how/about/you/and/me/go/for/a/little/run/to/clear/our/helms/a/bit/hm?”

Shockrr looked up at him, gazing at him like he had just done the impossible, nodding his helm so fast Blurr couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at his mechling’s enthusiasm. “Alright./Wait/for/me/by/the/front/door/okay?/I/need/to/grab/something/first.”

Shockrr let out a soft ‘k’ before speeding off for the front door. Blurr smiled as he turned his comm-link on. It would be rude not to let Shockwave know they were going out for a bit.

* * *

Asteroids were an excellent choice for running at high speeds without the consequences of running into some unfortunate by-standing bot in the way.

And to relieve some pent-up stress that seemed to follow him no matter how far he tried to run away from it.

Shockwave was going to let him have it when he found out he was running instead of taking his meds again, no matter how much Blurr could argue that running helped too. The downsides of having a spy for a conjunx sometimes.

“Can’t catch me! Can’t catch me!”

Blurr smiled at the playful taunts shouted at him, chasing after the speeding orange blur racing ahead of him. “Oh/yes/I/will~!” Kicking it into high gear, Blurr shot forward after his sparkling, playfully keeping himself just behind the little mech while giving him enough room to be out of reach.

Speed was a family thing. Something SpeedStarr had greatly stressed to Blurr in his younger years back in the time, yet never really understood why his grand carrier was always so worked up about it. Even to this very solar cycle, she kept telling Blurr to keep his helm on straight when running. And he still didn’t know why.

Blurr dashed forward, reaching an arm out towards his sparkling. “Missed me!” Shockrr playfully mocked, easily dodging Blurr’s grasp. “Missed me! Now you gotta kiss me!” Blurr let loose a laugh at his son’s antics as the chase continued.

Shockrr loved chase, it was his favorite game that involved speed and his favorite bot to play along with. If only Shockwave could run as fast to join in on the game.

“Shockrr, be careful.” Blurr warned as Shockrr spun around and started running backwards. The little mechling grinned at him, clearly pleased with himself showing off his skills to his carrier. Blurr couldn’t help the smirk growing on his face. He son was certainly a show off.

But he could do better.

With a spring in his step, Blurr shot past his sparkling. Blurr didn’t consider himself much of a show off, considered it very much as a waste of time when he could be doing something productive instead, but when he did have some time to show off, he put in all the stops.

Flips and jumps in the air, Blurr felt like he was flying as he ran and showed off his skills. Practiced moves felt like second nature to him as he hopped and jumped about, twisting his body with flexible precision and stellar cycles of training when he was still a cadet. Flipping off a rock backwards, Blurr landed in a prefect split, twisting his body around and around to gain enough momentum to lift his peds off the ground with his arms keeping his up.

Looking up, Blurr shot a smile to Shockrr, enjoying the look of awe on the young spark’s face. With one last spin, Blurr pushed his arms out, shooting off the ground with great ease and did another couple of flips before landing gracefully on his peds.

“ _Whooooa!_ That was cool!” Shockrr exclaimed, running up to Blurr with a wide awe struck look on his faceplate. “Do that again carrier! Do it again!”

Blurr chuckled as Shockrr grabbed one of his servos, jumping up and down with stars in his optics. It suddenly occurred to Blurr how big his sparkling was getting. The little bot was just a bit over two hundred stellar cycles old and he was already up to Blurr’s knees and getting bigger every solar cycle. Shockwave made small comments about Shockrr’s height in conversations time to time, noting how fast their little one was growing.

Maybe it was thanks to his fast acting CNA that Shockrr was growing so fast, or maybe it was just his Decepticon coding at work. Whatever the case may be, Shockrr was growing up to be a fine young bot.

“Okay/oaky./Settle/down/Shockrr./How/about/a/break/first?”

“But I’m not tired!”

“We’ve/been/running/around/for/a/megacycle/and/a/half/now./I/think/a/little/break/is/in/order.” Shockrr huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and looked angrily up at Blurr. “How/about/we/rest/for/ten/cycles?/Then/I/can/teach/you/some/of/my/move.” Shockrr’s face instantly lit up again.

“Yes Yes Yes! Teach me those moves! Please carrier!” Shockrr jumped up and down impenitently, causing Blurr to laugh a bit.

“Okay/okay/settle/down./First/we/rest/then/we’ll/practice/some/tricks/alright?”

“Okay!” Shockrr smiled, grabbing Blurr’s servo and started tugging him towards the ship. Blurr followed behind him with a smile of his own.

A while later, the pair were sitting on the ramp of the small shuttle ship enjoying the silence and small humming Shockrr made as he drank from his energon cube. Blurr sipped on his cube quietly, enjoying the moment of peace he rarely had in a while. Work had been a little demanding of Blurr lately, pulling him away from his family for longer and longer amounts of time. In the past, Blurr wouldn’t have normally minded since it was only him and Shockwave at the time.

But since Shockrr came along, the fast running bot found it more and more difficult to stay away. Being so far from his sparkmate he could handle for a while, but being away from his sparkling was very much a different matter to itself all. Blurr couldn’t focus as well when out on a field mission the first couple of stellar cycles, wondering with worry for his little Shockrr. And Shockrr was none too pleased when Blurr had to go away.

More than once Shockwave had struggled calming their young bot down who didn’t understand why his carrier had gone away and wouldn’t be back for a long time. Those first few stellar cycles were rough, but somehow they managed in the end. Shockrr still hated it when Blurr was called away on a mission, but luckily he didn’t freak out as much any more like he had in the past.

Taking a quick glance at his son, Blurr cracked a small smile at Shockrr. His little bitlet. He certainly took after his creators, growing more and more to a perfect combination of him and Shockwave’s Autobot form. His antenna had grown out, splitting at the base connected to his helm, going straight out to the back, taking shape of a pair of lightning bolts.

Certainly a fitting look on a bot born for speed.

“Carrier?”

“Yes/Shockrr?”

“… Why did Uncle Bee have to go?”

Blurr froze. Taking a small glance at Shockrr, he could see the little bot staring at him intently. Waiting for an answer.

“…/W-Why/do/you/ask?”

“I made a cool picture for Uncle Bee! I wanted to give him the next time he came over to visit!” Shockrr smiled, but it quickly went away to a frown. “I asked sire when Uncle Bee was coming by. But he said that Uncle Bee went away, and he won’t tell me why. So… why?”

Blurr tensed, tapping the sides of his energon cube. There were so many things Blurr wanted to keep Shockrr in the dark about, and death was certainly one of those things. While not completely confirmed, everyone was sure the small SpaceBridge repair crew were gone for good.

While not close, Blurr did have a small friendship with the yellow minibot Bumblebee. Shockrr however built a strong bond with the bot over the stellar cycles, calling him with affection ‘Uncle Bee’ despite the fact they weren’t even related. Not that the bot minded too much about it. It was sure to be just a phase Shockrr was sure to get out of when he got older.

Still, when Blurr and Shockwave had found out about the crew’s fate a few solar cycles back, they had withheld the information to their young spark. Shockrr was very attached to the bot, so learning that he was gone for good was not something they wanted to tell him. They knew they couldn’t keep it a secret forever. They just wanted to wait till he was a bit older to understand a few things, and death was a hard thing for a young spark to understand about.

Blurr sighed, setting the cube aside. “Shockrr/…” He looked at his sparkling. How was he supposed to tell him? “… Uncle Bee… he uh…”

“… am I in trouble?”

“What?”

“You’re talking slow, carrier. You only talk slow if you’re mad or sleepy.” Shockrr’s optics stared at Blurr, looking at him sadly. “Am… am I in trouble?”

“NO/NO/NO/NO/OF/COURSE/NOT/NEVER/I’M/JUST/SPEAKING/SLOWLY/BECAUSE/I/DON’T/KNOW/THE/PROPER/WAY/TO/TELL/YOU!”

“Proper way to tell me what?”

Blurr bit his lower lip. “W-Well/it’s/not/an/…/easy/thing/to/explain.”

“Tell me carrier! I can take it!” Shockrr grabbed his arm, looking at him intently. “Please carrier! Tell me what happened to Uncle Bee!”

Blurr stared at his child before finally sighing and began telling Shockrr the truth. He explained everything as best he could in the gentlest way he could explain, watching sadly as Shockrr’s face slowly lost its smile and hopeful gaze. When he finished, Blurr looked at his sparkling sadly. “…/I’m/sorry/Shockrr/…/but/he’s/not/coming/back.”

The pair were silent as they stared at each other. Blurr was sure Shockrr wouldn’t take the news well and was prepared for the worst.

“… I don’t think so.”

“…/Huh?”

“There’s no way Uncle Bee is dead.” Shockrr said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“…/S-Shockrr/look/I—”

“You said he only teleported away! And no one is even looking for him!” Shockrr stood up, looking at Blurr with a fierce look. “Uncle Bee can’t be gone! He’s just missing!”

“Shockrr/please/try/to/understand—”

“If you went missing, would you be dead?”

Blurr blinked, taken back by the question. “Well/…/no/not/if/I/was/just/missing.”

“See! Uncle Bee can’t be dead! He’s just missing!” Shockrr grabbed his arm, shaking it with vigor. “We have to go look for Uncle Bee! He has to be lost out there somewhere!”

“Shockrr/we/can’t.”

“Why not?! Uncle Bee is family! We can’t leave family behind!”

 _But he’s not even related to us._ Blurr thought, completely at a loss of what to do. At one side, he agreed with his little spark. While not family, Bumblebee was of some sort a good friend of the family. Yes he wasn’t close to the bot, but Bumblebee had still been a good bot to his spark.

But on the other side, searching for a whole lost ship teleported to some unknown location of the galaxy was not so easy as it sounded. For one, no one could trace where the ship had teleported to. Two, the Space Bridge the ship had used was destroyed, completely beyond repair. Three, even if they did go out and went looking for the missing crew, there was no estimate of how long they would search for before finding them. And fourth, no one was really sure if the missing crew were still even _alive_ to make the risk.

Some many factors and possibilities to count in, not too many favorable outcomes.

“Shockrr/you/have/to/understand/that/there/…/things/we/just/can’t/do.”

“But finding Uncle Bee is something we _can_ do!”

Blurr couldn’t help but smile at his child’s stubbornness. “Shockrr/listen/it’s/not/as/easy/as/it/sounds/yes/we/could/go/looking/for/him/but/you/have/to/think/about/it/first/like/how/long/would/it/take/to/find/him/where/would/we/go/looking/first/would/it/really/be/worth/it/in/the/end/if/all/that/searching/turned/out/to/be/all/for/nothing/…” He looked at his son with serious face. “Yes/I/agree/that/someone/should/go/looking/for/him/and/his/friends/but/you/have/to/think/things/through/first/before/acting/on/anything.”

Shockrr stared at him with an unreadable face. Blurr was starting to get worried when he didn’t say anything for a couple of cycles.

“ _… THAT’S STUPID!_ ” Blurr jumped is surprise, taken back by his sparkling’s outburst.

“Shockrr!”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT SOME STUPID REASON OR WHATEVER! Uncle Bee is still family and we should go look for him!”

“Shockrr/li—”

“No! I thought you cared about Uncle Bee! I thought you would understand! But you’re just like sire! You don’t really care about him! Nobody cares about him but me!”

“Shockrr/I—”

“No! NononononononononoNO! I don’t want to hear your excuse! I don’t want to hear anything from you!” Shockrr screamed, taking off in a flash before Blurr could blink.

“SHOCKRR!” Blurr stood up, watching his little spark dash off in the distance, completely stunned by the unexpected turn of events. “… _ooooh_. How are you so **bad** at this Blurr?” The bot groaned, burying his face in his servos.

* * *

Blurr waited for a while before getting off the ship to go look for his sparkling.

He didn’t rush himself, there was no real way to get off the asteroid. The only way to get off the rock was the ship they had taken to get here and Blurr didn’t need to worry about Shockrr hijacking the ship. He was still a sparkling with a lot to learn.

Walking around, he soon found Shockrr sitting on a large rock, back turned to him. The little bot did nothing as Blurr slowly approached him. He didn’t even move as Blurr stood beside him. The pair just stayed there, quiet and still.

As the nanokliks ticked by with neither bot speaking to each other, Blurr gazed at the countless stars in the sky. They were certainly beautiful.

Start gazing was a hobby of his, something he picked up at a young spark age and never grew out of. It helped to calm him down when he couldn’t think clearly on a certain solar cycles.

After a while, Blurr turned his helm to look at his child. “… Shockrr, we’re going to need to head back home soon…”

The little mech was silent, showing no indication that he had heard Blurr.

The older mech sighed inwardly. Shockwave had warned him this might happen. Blurr had hoped he could make Shockrr understand, but he only seemed to make things worse.

“Sire said…” Blurr snapped his attention to his son. “… that no one was looking for Uncle Bee because… cause nobody cared enough to look for him.” Shockrr looked up, but didn’t look at his carrier. “That none of the other Autobots cared to look for him cause he wasn’t important enough to look for…” Shockrr turned his helm, looking up at Blurr. “… isn’t Uncle Bee important enough? Why does no one else care about him?”

Blurr was silent a moment, taking in Shockrr’s words carefully. With a sigh, he kneeled down beside Shockrr, looking him right in his optics. “Shockrr, it’s not that no one cares. It just that… some bots would rather stick to the book than go taking great risks.” Shockrr looked down with a sad frown.

Carefully, Blurr lifted Shockrr’s helm up by the chin, wiping away gently at the dry coolant tracks. “I understand you’re upset about how things have turned out, but you have to understand that that’s just how things are sometimes. Even if we don’t agree on it.”

“… can’t we go look for Uncle Bee?”

“Oh Shockrr…” Blurr leaned forward, pressing his helm against his sparkling’s. “We could, if we can. But your sire and I are busy with work, and that demands a lot of time. Plus we wouldn’t know where to look first.” Blurr rubbed his thumb across Shockrr’s cheek, brushing away a new wet coolant track. “… Tell you what though. If you find any traces of where Bumblebee might had been transwarped to, we can go looking there.”

Shockrr’s optics lit up. “R-Really?”

“Yes/but/only/if/you/promise/to/ _carefully_ /look/for/clues/and/hints/and/study/up/on/star/maps/and/tell/me/and/your/sire/about/any/findings/before/doing/anything/reckless/like/going/off/on/your/own/or/sneaking/off/to/fine/Bumblebee/with/your/Gran.”

Shockrr’s smile feel into a pout, crossing his arms over his chest. “… you’re no fun we you take out the risks.”

“You/spend/less/time/in/the/med/clinic/when/you/listen.” Blurr grinned a little, scooping up his sparkling and started walking back to the ship.

“… hey, carrier?”

“Yes?”

“You care about Uncle Bee… right?”

“Of/course/I/do./Just/because/I’m/not/looking/for/him/doesn’t/mean/I/don’t/care.”

“… and sire?”

Blurr paused a moment. “…/he/…/well/he’s/got/a/certain/…/ _degree_ /of/care/for/him/too./Why/else/would/he/have/trusted/him/enough/to/watch/over/you/as/a/young/spark?”

“… So, if I really find anything, you’ll both go looking for him?”

“If/it’s/a/solid/enough/lead/we’ll/head/out/the/moment/we/can.”

Shockrr went quiet in Blurr’s hold for a moment before shifting around, wrapping his arms around Blurr’s neck. “’ank you.” The mechling mumbled against Blurr’s cabling.

“… you’re welcome Shockrr.”


	43. Rescue (BlitzBee)

_Tiny._

That was Blitzwing’s first impression when he saw her.

_Small, tiny, itty-bitty._

So many ways to say it, yet Blitzwing couldn’t say any of it. His processor couldn’t comprehend anything other than the fact that he was holding a super small being in his servos. She was so Primus slagging _small_.

He wasn’t sure if he was just so big or if he was just imagining things. So many emotions were swirling inside Blitzwing, it was hard to tell what exactly he was feeling right now.

The femmling, **_HIS_** femmling, was so tiny in his giant servos. So tiny. She was just a smug compared to him. And she was his. His little sparkling.

He may have missed her emergence and not being there for important bonding moments, but he knew that this was his sparkling. He felt it in his spark.

And she was beautiful. To her tiny servos and peds to her wonderful colors, everything about her was beautiful. A snicker bubbled in his intake.

Her colors reminded him of a sunset. A beautiful, beautiful sunset.

Blitzwing kept snickering, looking down at his femmling lovingly as he lifted a digit to her face. She let out a little beep as his digit gently poked her cheek. Her big blue optics gazed up at him curiously.

Blue. She had blue optics.

Blitzwing’s snickering was slowly morphing into giggling madness fit. Blue optics. Guess they weren’t naming her Crimson Rose.

Her optics turned from his face to his large digit, staring at it intently. Reaching her little servos out, she grabbed his digit, opening her intake wide and bit down on it.

Blitzwing lost it.

His mad cackling filled the night air. His shoulders shook harshly as he threw his helm back and laughed, coolant running down his face freely. He probably looked like a mad bot, and he probably was. Everyone kept saying how unhinged and crazy after his upgrade.

Mad, crazy, unhinged, insane, psychotic, just to name a few of them.

But he didn’t care. He didn’t care about it at all. He didn’t care what other bots said or thought about him. Not when he held the most precious thing in the universe in his very servos.

Blitzwing’s laughter was thunderous, but it didn’t stop him from detecting a signature approaching. His cackling stopped, snapping his gaze towards the approaching signal. His canons twitched, eager to be of some use if it turned out to be threat. He slowly cupped his servos together over his sparkling, feeling the great need to protect her from any approaching danger.

However, when he saw that it was only the Prime, his tense body relaxed. It was just the Prime, he wasn’t a threat. He was safe.

“Blitzwing. There you are, I—” The Prime’s words cut off as Blitzwing un-cupped his servos, revealing his small sparkling inside. “… you found her.”

Blitzwing’s intake felt too numb to speak, so he just numbly nodded. He inwardly flinched as the bot came closer, looking at the small child with relief on his faceplate. The little femm spared a small glance at the other bot, blinking at him once before trying to chew harder on the large digit she had in her intake.

A chuckle bubbled in the back of Blitzwing’s intake. Oh she was certainly a feisty one. Just like her carri—

**_Hummel._ **

Blitzwing’s helm shot up, cursing at himself inwardly for ever forgetting about his Hummel as his monocle scanned the surrounding area for any sign or streak of bright, shinning, happy yellow against the dark colors of the forest. None to his surprise, he could find no sign of the color or his loved one anywhere.

But he _had_ to be close by. Their sparkling was here. There was no way Hummel would abandon their little one so carelessly and thoughtless. Hummel’s spark didn’t have room to do something so evil like that.

So, where _was_ he?

* * *

Everything felt numb.

From the neck down to his chest and his left arm, everything felt numb.

He wasn’t numb enough not to feel his insides being poked around, but he was certainly numb enough to be unable to move. He kept his gaze focused on the ceiling, trying very hard not to look at the spider-bot lady hovering over him while poking and probing the inside of his neck, taking and pulling things out of him.

She muttering something he couldn’t pick up on, and he **_REALLY_** didn’t want to know what she was doing. He caught a few words here and there, like deluded and mixed lines and not fully something. His audios couldn’t pick up much as she had a tenancy to move back and forth between him and something else.

And he really wished she stop already.

He felt weak and tired, not having any fuel in his systems for Primus knows how long now. But most importantly, he was worried sick about his sparkling. He hadn’t seen her since this whole thing happened and he didn’t know if she was well or not.

More than once he tried to escape so he could go looking for her and get them both out of here, and he got close a few times too. But just when he was super close to even get a step out of the room, he always got jabbed with cyber-venom and woke up back on the table again.

It sucked.

It really really sucked.

He just wanted his sparkling and be far from here as quickly as possible. He wanted to be back at the base with his friends. Back with Sari so they could hang out and play games. Back with Bulkhead so he could hang with his best buddy. Back with Prowl who tried to get him to slow down once in a while to enjoy things that were slow and boring. Back with Ratchet who despite being all grumpy looked out for everyone’s wellbeing. Back with Optimus who was the most understand if not nicest bot he had ever meet in all his life.

Back with Blitzwing, the mech who he loved and cared about and understood better than anyone else in the universe.

Blitzwing.

He wondered how Blitzwing was doing. Was everyone treating him nicely? Was he behaving? Did he know about being missing?

He hoped he knew. If he did, then there was no doubt in his mind Blitzwing would come looking for them.

Before he knew what was happening, everything suddenly rushed in five blinks.

Blink.

Red lights turned on.

Blink.

He heard sirens going off and the spider-lady cursing.

Blink.

The spider-lady appeared in his vision, glaring at him.

Blink.

There was a jab inside his neck and she was gone.

Blink.

The edges of his vision were starting to blur and darken.

He tried to hold on and keep his optics open, yet he was fighting a losing battle against his systems. He was tired. So, so tired.

His optics were drooping, blurring so much that they couldn’t focus on anything. Even when a dark shape entered his fading sight he could only just stare at it as everything slowly went black.

The last thing he was aware of was feeling someone freeing his limbs and being scooped up before he finally blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another BlitzBee chapter, whoot! Fun fact, this chapter was posted the day before my birthday..... wow, I feel old.


	44. Talking (SwinLock)

_“It’s remarkable! I never seen a ability like this before!”_

_“I thought it was only possible with the system, but this just breaks open new possibilities!”_

_Bots. So many big large bots covered in shadows surrounded him from all sides. So many voices talking at once it was hard to pick them out clearly._

_“Think of all the possibilities—!”_

_“—a new breakthrough—”_

_“Need to study every—”_

_“—but how did he—”_

_“—should not be possible at such a young—”_

_“—if we could harness such a power, then—”_

_There were so many things going on around him at once. It was making his processor spin around painfully._

_“But how is that only he—”_

_“—don’t know, couldn’t—”_

_“—maybe if we try—”_

_“No no no, that won’t work—”_

_“—then how about—”_

_“—can we try—”_

_Whimpering, he covered his helm. Everything was just too much for the young bot. He just wanted everything to stop already and leave him alone._

_A yelp tore out of his intake when one of those bot grabbed him by the arm, pulling away his only protection. His gaze went up, looking at the faceless bot glaring down at him with those blue optics._

_Blue._

_Blue._

_Blue._

_He hated blue._

_Blue was a bad color._

_It was bright and it hate to stare at that color for so long._

_Blue was a color of bots he didn’t like. They were rough and mean and uncaring._

_“Maybe we should study this power more clearly.” A voice spoke, reaching at him with clawed servos. “The best way to collect data is to study it at the core.”_

_He felt his spark skip. Something about those words sent fear down his spinal strut. It grew larger as disoriented voices rang out with agreement, moving closer to him with sharp servos and horrifying shaped tools._

_He struggled to get out of the hold, but it held on to his arm tightly, keeping him there as they came closer and closer. When the first tool jabbed his chest, piercing his chest right were his power laid, he opened his intake and—_

Swindle shot up, his optics flaring open as his spark painfully pounded in its chamber. His vents came out quick and harsh. Discretely, he could make out that he was sitting on a berth with something touching his chest. Looking down, he found his chest wide open, exposing his inner machinery with wires and tubes connected to ports and his fuel lines.

Following the wires and tubes, he found them hooked up to a machine. No doubt it was pumping fuel and energy into his systems while making sure to keep him online in stable condition. Swindle dragged his glossa over his lips. His intake felt dry. He must have been out for a few solar cycles.

Gazing back down at, he studied the inner workings of his body. It had been a while since he took a good look in there but he still had a good memory of what was his and what was replaced. And a lot of him had been replaced to save him.

His digits crawled towards his side, brushing against the welding works on his protoform skin. Skin? Oh. Most of his armor was gone. But only on his torso and shoulder guards. That explained why his chest felt lighter than normal.

Gazing back down at himself with more calculated gaze, Swindle wondered if anything else was amiss. He could spy the weapons he had installed stellar cycles ago still where he had put them, though with a quick check of his systems he was somewhat disappointed to find all of them had been deactivated. Great. He was going to have such a swell time reactivating them one by one.

As his gaze went up to his spark chamber, something in his processor told him that something was wrong. His optics gazed over the area, but he could find anything wrong. All his systems were coming up clean in his system check, and his spark chamber looked to be okay. Everything was there and right where they should be.

Motherboards, circuitry, wires, tubes, spark chamber, modified gun he made himself in the same place he installed it in, the empty space next to his spark chamber, hidden compartments he placed in his body that held items and secrets he only knew, the folded thin sheet of metal where his drawer laid hidden. Another system check told him it was left untouched and still active, filling Swindle with a bit of relief. Still, there was a small sense of unease in him.

Even after looking at everything carefully, even his folded up drawer despite not wanted to glance to the scraps and old scars on it, nothing felt out of place to him. He still had motherboards working his systems for every separate weapon control and body function, his odd color spark still beat within his chamber where it laid next to the empty space, every electrical wire and tube feeding energy and energon to his systems where in place, every secrete space and panel he installed over the stellar cycles in his body containing things that ranged from priceless items to a triumphant card. Everything was still there. Everything was still working. Everything was—

No.

Not everything.

Something was wrong and something didn’t sit right when he thought everything was there.

Looking again, Swindle tried remembering what was where and how it should be. Wires, spark, tubes, compartments, empty space, gun, drawer, motherboards. Drawer, tubes, gun, empty space, spark, compartments, motherboards, wires. Spark, gun, empty space, wires, tube, drawer, compart—

Swindle’s optics widened.

Slowly his gaze traveled up to his spark chamber, looking a little off towards the side. A low keening whine escaped Swindle’s intake at the sight of the empty space beside his spark chamber.

An empty space where a gestation tank was _supposed to be_.

Swindle’s digits reached in the space, only to confirm that he wasn’t seeing things. Or feeling anything that was supposed to be there.

The Decepticon covered his intake, feeling physically ill at the revelation of his gestation tank no longer there beside his spark chamber.

His gestation tank was gone.

His gestation tank was **_gone_**.

Swindle wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream or purge. It was gone. The one part of him that he had kept safe for stellar cycles. Gone.

He tried shutting his optics, hopping that if he reset his vision his gestation tank would reappear when he opened them. But no matter how tightly he pressed his optic lids shut or how long he held the closed, it was always the same sight to greet his vision when he opened them again.

Gone.

His gestation tank.

Gone.

It was hard to process in Swindle’s mind. How could his gestation tank be gone? **_Why_** was it gone? He had taken great risks to make sure that it was in top condition! He made sure nothing was wrong with it in case he ever planned to carry a sparkling in him!

A cold rush hit Swindle.

A sparkling.

His sparkling.

OH SLAG HE FORGOT ABOUT HIS SPARKLING!

Swindle gazed around wildly, looking for any sign of the sparkling he had carried for Primus knows how long. His hysteria was growing by the nanoklik as he couldn’t find any sign of his sparkling.

… until his gaze fell upon a sleeping form.

The room was fairly dark but with just enough light coming from the monitors and screens, Swindle could make out Lockdown’s hunch over form in the darkness. The hunter was sitting at a table, his helm rested on his only remaining servo. Swindle could see the side of his helm, but he could tell the bounty hunter was in sleep mode.

But why was Lockdown here? From what Swindle could remember, the mercenary hated being in places that were crowded or occupied by bots. He didn’t like being seen out in the open and med centers were filled with bots on duty who could come in on a moment’s notice. So… why was Lockdown here?

Anyone could walk right in and spot him there, dead in recharge. Lockdown hated it when bots snuck up on him and would rather rest somewhere no one could stumble on him by mistake. Swindle had learned to leave the bot alone during those times and wait it out, but he was confused.

Lockdown, like himself, hated medical centers. The pair had a mutual agreement that they would prefer to take care and handle any damage sustained on their bodies by themselves. Or, if the damage was more than what they could handle, they would suck up on their pride and call on each other for help.

Swindle had lost count how many times Lockdown had helped him repair his body, but he could remember all the times Lockdown called on him for help. He was never happy to see the hunter in such bad state. And despite the many chew outs he always gave the hunter, Lockdown never seemed to listen to his concerns.

But why was Lockdown here? And on that note, why was _he_ here? Swindle didn’t remember much of how he got here, but it must have been serious enough if he was here. He wouldn’t dream of stepping into a med center unless if it was a great emergency or Lockdown dragged him to one after finding out about something he didn’t like or—

Swindle briefly looked at the empty area next to his spark chamber, slowly looking back at Lockdown with widening optics.

No.

His servo reached up, touching the area.

No.

His venting hitched.

No.

The room felt a degree colder.

No.

No.

_No._

_No._

**_No._ **

**_NO._ **

**_NO!_ **

Swindle’s denta gritted, sliding his legs off the berth, pushing off it slowly. Something tugged at his innards, but he didn’t give them a second thought as he stood on his shaky stabilizers. Without a thought, he grabbed the wires and cords and yanked them out.

Warning signals flooded his vision, but Swindle just deleted and ignored them. His stabilizers shook with each slow step, bracing himself against anything that could support his weight, keeping his narrowed gaze on the hunter as his free servo reached into his subspace compartment.

The table was a few steps away from the wall supporting Swindle. He didn’t give it a sparring thought as he slowly took out a long, thick, jagged knife from his compartment, pushing past his limits to move forward. Each step felt heavy and very off balance, but Swindle didn’t care.

Swindle hardly cared about anything at this point other than getting REVENGE at this point. The one thing. The one thing Swindle cared and cherished more than anything else, even shanix and credits, was gone. GONE. And there was only one bot capable of such cruelty and sparkless capability.

And only Lockdown knew about the sparkling. He knew about the sparkling and wasn’t _at all_ happy about it. He knew and he went through with his threat to make him suffer.

Swindle was glaring ice as his lifted his shaky arm up, aiming the knife right at Lockdown’s face. Lockdown took away the one thing he loved most… so it was only fair he took away something _just as important to him as well._

“Beeeep.”

The knife stopped short, hovering over Lockdown’s face.

Swindle’s gaze stared at the mech, slowly moving away from Lockdown’s face to the crook of his prosthetic arm.

There, wrapped up in a nice clean blanket, was a young spark. A sparkling.

Swindle stared at the sparkling, his processor coming to a halt at the sight of _Lockdown_ holding a small sparkling in his arms. Which was odd since Lockdown didn’t even _like_ sparkling so… why was he hold this one?

Setting the knife aside, Swindle leaned down to get a closer look at the sparkling. There was something… _familiar_ about it. He looked closely at the sparkling, gazing intently at its— _her_ face. There was something oddly familiar about her. Her dark faceplate was screaming something to him, something that was trying to draw his attention. Her optics were still sealed shut, so she was basically still a new emerged sparkling.

Inching just a bit closer, Swindle lifted a shaky servo up. Pinching a bit of the blanket, he moved it a bit of the fabric back. More of her face was exposed, showing her rounded helm, black protoform skin, red energon lines and…

Swindle blinked. Then blinked again.

His intake fell open, optics widening as his servos cover his lower face.

It was his sparkling.

It was HIS sparkling.

He didn’t recognize her at first in the dark, but on closer inspection he was 100% sure she was his sparkling.

A small corner of his intake twitched, growing as he stared at her. Memories, shaky and blurry at best, slowly trickled into his mind. A hitch of his vent silently hissed, pressing one servo over the empty space.

He did it. He actually did it. He brought a small life into the universe.

His intake split into a shaky smile. It quickly fell away however as he looked back up at the bot holding her. _Lockdown._ His spark felt heavy in his chest. Why was he here? He didn’t remember the bot being here and his mind was still fussy, but he was sure Lockdown had put two and two together. He looked back down at their- _HIS_ sparkling. The bits of the hunter in her features would surely tip off anyone of who her sire was.

Her sire.

Swindle’s tanks felt thick as he gazed back up at the sleeping hunter.

How? How was he to expect things to go back to the way there were now? They can’t. That much he was sure. Swindle was sure things would never going to be the same again. Not when there was a sparkling on the line. Swindle wouldn’t risk it. He would never put such an innocent life on the life.

Especially one that was related to him.

His only link to family.

Running his dry glossa over his lips, Swindle carefully reached for the sparkling. He needed to get her away from Lockdown, then they needed to get out of here before the hunter awoke and leave far far away where he could never find them. He wasn’t sure if Lockdown would come after them, but he would rather be safe than sorry in the end.

His digits brushed under her body, ready to lift her out of Lockdown’s loose hold.

In a blink, a servo shot out and grabbed him by his neck cables. Swindle’s optics widened in alarm, grabbing at the arm as he was dragged forward till his face was close to Lockdown's wide awake glaring face. Bright red angry optics glared dangerously at Swindle, and for a moment the merchant was sure he was done for. But just as suddenly as the glare came, it was quickly gone in a blink and replaced with recognition.

“Swindle!” The crushing grip around his neck was gone, letting him step back and gasp. Swindle looked up as Lockdown stood up, the bigger bot gazing down at him with his remaining servo hovering at his side. Was Lockdown going to hit him? Grab the knife he carelessly discarded? Make a grab at him?

Their optics meet, emotion storming inside Swindle’s spark as he stared up at Lockdown with mixing thoughts and blurred memories before his vision was clouded with warning signals. His stabilizers felt weak and everything went black as his body pitched and fell sideways.

Somewhere, in the fading distant of his mind, Swindle was almost sure he heard Lockdown cry out in alarm.

* * *

When Swindle awoke again, he could tell something was different.

It took a while for his processor to wake up, but he was sure there was something different. Opening his optics slowly, Swindle tried to view his surroundings as his awareness started coming back to him.

The first thing he saw was his chest covered in tubes and wires again, thought the number seemed to have doubled now. He stared at it for a while longer before taking notice that something was in one of his servos. Shifting his helm to the side, the merchant almost jumped.

Lockdown’s face was _extremely_ close to his face.

Swindle was sure his spark skipped a couple beats after that. Subconsciously, Swindle’s servos twitched, feeling something there. The bot blinked, looking down to see Lockdown’s servo intertwined with his. Swindle blinked a couple of times, making sure he wasn’t seeing things

After about twenty blinks and Lockdown’s servo was still there, Swindle was sure he wasn’t imagining things. Glancing at the hunter confirmed he was still in recharge, Swindle tried moving his servo out of the hunter’s grip.

Not his smartest move as that only aroused Lockdown from his recharge.

Swindle cursed inside his helm as Lockdown’s optics slowly blinked open, shutting his quickly and going still in hopes that the mercenary would only see him as sleeping and leave him alone. The nanokliks ticked by and Swindle’s patience was starting to run thin.

“Swindle.”

It took all of Swindle’s willpower not to jump.

“Swindle.”

The merchant kept his optics closed, pleading to Primus that Lockdown would give up and leave him be.

“Swindle I know yer jus’ pretendin’ ta be rechargin’. So why don’t ya jus’ make this easier fer the both of us n’ give up the act already.”

The tone Lockdown was using already told Swindle enough to know the act really wasn’t working on him and he was getting dangerously close to being angry at him. Sighing inwardly in defeat, Swindle cracked open one of his optics. Lockdown was staring down at him, cracking a small grin at him.

“Mornin’ sleepin’ beauty. Had a nice nap?”

Swindle huffed, weakly reaching up and shoving Lockdown’s face away. “Oh ha ha, very funny.” It didn’t go over his helm how scratchy his voice sounded. Shifting his arms under him, Swindle tried to sit up. He didn’t realize how tired and weak he felt, not till he tried moving.

His arms were beginning to shake when Lockdown pushed him back down. “Easy Swin. Don’t push yerself n’ give the doctors another scare. Already had ‘nough ta deal with ‘em already.”

Swindle shot Lockdown a glare but there was no real heat in it. He was far too tired to snap at Lockdown and he didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with him. Swindle gazed carefully at the mercenary. He didn’t look… _too_ murdery. He looked more relaxed and at ease for some reason.

That… did not sit well for Swindle.

If Lockdown was this relaxed, then he must have just gotten off from a big hunt or bounty. Bounty hunting wasn’t just a job, it was also a hobby for him. A very deadly hobby he enjoyed too much sometimes.

Still… if Lockdown had just gotten off from a hunt and was in a good mood, then he could probably grab some info. Moving his glossa around the inside of his intake, still felt dry, and looked at Lockdown seriously. “How… how long was I out for?”

“A few solar cycles.” Lockdown shrugged, scratching the side of his chin. “Though ta be truthful, ya kinda were in n’ out of it ‘fore we reached the nearest medical station.”

“What for?” Swindle asked, though he was sure why he was here. Lockdown wanted to keep him online long enough to make him suffer. Long enough to beg that both he and his sparkling were offline.

Swindle’s optics widened. The sparkling. HIS sparkling!

“THE SPARKLING!” Swindle shot up and immediately regretted it. Warning signs flashed in his vision, falling back against the berth in a painful groan as his body began numbing.

“Whoa! Swin careful!” Lockdown jumped up, pressing on Swindle’s chest to keep him down. Not that the bot had any energy left to get up again.

“The Sparkling!” Swindle thrashed weakly. “Lockdown Where Is She?! What Have You Done To Her?!”

“Calm done! She’s fine!” Lockdown pinned his limbs down, keeping his form still on the berth. “It’s yerself ya gotta worry ‘bout!”

“I Don’t Care! Where?! Where Is She?!” Swindle tried to thrash harder, trying to get away from the mech pinning him down. He needed to find his sparkling. He needed to find her _now._

“ _Of for fraggin’_ -She’s over there!” Lockdown pointed his hook at something. Swindle’s gaze followed the appendage, his sight falling on a glass container.

His thrashing slowly came to a stop, staring at the container that held a small Cybertronian inside. She was at a distance, but Swindle could tell it was his sparkling in there recharging away peacefully without a care in the universe.

“See? She’s fine.” Swindle twisted his helm just a bit to glance at Lockdown as he moved off him. “Had the doctors look her over n’ everythin’. Everythin’s clean in her systems n’ she’s doin’ fine.” Lockdown looked at him, smirking a bit. “Pretty stubborn fer a sparklin’ ta survive through all of that. She defiantly got that from you.”

Swindle was quiet, staring at Lockdown for a moment before turning his gaze back on his sparkling. She was right there. Right there in that special container. He reached his servo out towards her, trying to get a touch her. She was just barely out of his reach, just so close that his digits could almost touch the glass.

“Swin, hey don’t push yerself. She ain’t goin’ anywhere.”

“I… I need…” Swindle tried to move off the berth, but Lockdown pinned him back down. “I need… need to…”

“Swin, calm down.” Lockdown grabbed his helm, turning it to look at him. “She’s fine. She’s not goin’ anywhere so—”

“ _Please_.”

The word slipped out of his intake. The word took him by surprise. Lockdown seemed to have been taken off-guard by it as well.

“Please.” The word slipped out again in a quiet whisper. “I… I just… want to… to hold… her…” He stared at Lockdown, looking at him pleadingly. “… _please_.”

Lockdown stared at him, his face neutral of any emotion that Swindle could pick up on. Time felt to go by extremely slow till Lockdown finally sighed deeply, shifting around the berth till he was on the other side, moving his arms under Swindle carefully and lifted him up. Without thinking, Swindle huddled closer to Lockdown’s chest, freezing up a bit as the hunter began moving.

He didn’t relax until he was right next the containment unit that held his sparkling. He stared at her for a good while, emotions stirring inside him the longer he stared at her. She… she was so small. His awe couldn’t be measured as he stared at the small being before him. Memories slowly trickled into his mind as he gazed at her, his spark pounding inside its chamber with emotions pouring inside it. Had he really carried and created this small tiny being with his own body? The thought was almost incomprehensible to Swindle, yet here she was. Tiny and new to the universe she was brought into.

His servo shook as he reached out to touch her, but his effort was thwarted by the glass surrounding her. His digits knocked against the glass, trying over and over to reach his little sparkling but only growing increasingly frustrated when it was met with the same results. His effortless actions was making Swindle more and more frustrated by the nanoklik, growing close to screaming but stopped when Lockdown shifted his hold under him, grabbing his arm and guided it inside the container.

Swindle watched as his servo got closer and closer to the spark, wondering briefly if touching her would somehow hurt the little sparkling. His thoughts dashed when his digits brushed against his sparkling’s cheek. She shifted under his touch, letting out a tiny yawn before settling back down into recharge.

Seeing her move, watching her recharging peacefully, seeing her being simply _alive_ … Swindle lost it.

His vents hitched, coolant slowly building and pouring out of his optics.

He didn’t care how unprofessional he looked at the moment or if he let himself look weak in front of Lockdown. His sparkling. His little creation.

“It’s okay Swin.” Lockdown murmured, hugging Swindle close as the merchant began to cry ugly coolant tears. “It’s okay. Yer both okay.”

* * *

“She’s so small. Is that even possible?”

Lockdown grunted. “Maybe? Don’t really know. Don’t really care too much.”

“Of course you don’t.” Swindle chuckled, keeping his gaze on the little femm he now held in his arms. After getting his emotions under control and a quick check up from the doctors, Swindle was back on the berth again. Only this time he was fully awake and finally, **_finally_** holding his little creation.

Now that he was holding her, and the lights were on, he could finally get a good look at her.

Right off the bat he could see his little girl took more after Lockdown than him. Yet there were bits of himself in there as well. He was sure that with enough given time, more of her features would develop and start showing as she got older. Her helm was rounded, with a small beginnings of a forehead detail like his stating to appear, faceplate was as dark as his with just a smidgen of black markings starting to show around her shut optics.

A soft smile crossed his faceplate. He couldn’t wait to see her optics. From what he was told, he had been out of it for at least seven solar cycles, so she was getting close to reaching a deca-cycle before she could finally open them. He knew they were going to be red, but he wanted to see if she had normal pupils or cat like ones just like him.

His gaze broke away from his sparkling, sensing movement from the corner of his optic, turning his helm just enough to see Lockdown set a chair down next to the berth and seat himself down on it backwards. There was a tense atmosphere as the pair stared at each other, unsure of what to say.

Swindle’s memories where still a bit fuzzy, but he could remember bits and pieces of Lockdown helping thie- _his_ sparkling emerge. He was sure Lockdown had realized by now that he was the sparkling’s sire. There was no denying she looked almost strikingly similar to him in many ways. Though that only left the question of how he felt finding out he was a sire.

He hadn’t killed either of them yet, so that was a good thing… probably.

Still, Swindle wasn’t sure what Lockdown would do now that he knew the femm was his. He hadn’t harmed her nor did he abandon her somewhere else while he was out of it. Maybe Lockdown waited for him to get his mind back together before doing anything? Maybe. Or maybe he didn’t want to do anything to provoke Swindle’s wrath. Lockdown was scary enough on his own, but Swindle had a few tricks hidden up his arms that would make plenty of bots to think twice before messing with him.

Not if they want all his little ‘friends’ on their tailpipes for the remainder of their lives~

“So.” Lockdown began.

“So.” Swindle copied, unsure of what to say next. Words were usually his specialty, but that was mostly reserved for business and getting out of sticky situations. Having awkward deep feeling talks was not his top forte.

Lockdown sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, Swindle. I ain’t good at this whole… talkin’ thin’.” He eyed Swindle a bit. “But, uh… ya ain’t mad at me fer the whole…” He gestured to the femm recharging peacefully in Swindle’s arms. “… ya know… right?”

A frowned crossed Swindle’s face, narrowing his optics a bit. “… Sterile my actuator.”

Lockdown let out a nervous chuckle. “R-right. W-well I was _sure_ I was sterile.”

“ _Sterile. My. Actuator._ ” Swindle hissed.

The bounty hunter turned his helm, coughing into his fist. Swindle glared at him for a moment longer before sighing.

“Truthfully?” Lockdown turned his helm to look back at Swindle. “I don’t really know. I mean, I’m a bit angry about being sparked accidentally. But, everything else?” Swindle shrugged, looking down at his daughter. She slept peacefully in his arms, curled up against the top of his spark chamber. The empty area next to the spark chamber dampened his mood a bit.

He sighed inwardly. His gestation tank was gone. The shock hadn’t been easy and processing the whole thing had been hard on him, even after the doctors had carefully explained it to him of why it had to be removed, Swindle still couldn’t believe that the one part of himself he kept safe for many stellar cycles was just… _gone._

Too much damaged. Both inside and outside. It was even a wonder how the femmling survived during her creation in there, but she would be his only sparkling. Too many needed repairs that weren’t possible, and added with the damage to his spark chamber connected to it, a unanimous call had to be made. The act saved his life, but in turn, Swindle lost something precious to him.

He smiled down at his sparkling. Well, at least he gained something even more precious in place of it. “… I guess I can say that it was sort of worth it in the end.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be sour over you sparking me up.” He saw Lockdown cringe a bit from the corner of his optic. “But I’ve always wanted a sparkling. I just I would always adopt one instead of actually creating one myself.”

Lockdown hummed, leaning against the chair. “Always knew ya had a soft spot fer sparklin’s. Figured ya would want one sooner or later.”

“Yeah. I did.” Swindle sagged. Sparklings. He had planned adopting one later down the line at some point after he retired from his work line or something. Getting sparked was something that crossed his mind a few times in the past, but it was always dashed away when he thought it through more carefully. Siring one wasn’t an option as, unlike Lockdown, Swindle was completely sterile in that department.

Outside mishandling saw to _that_ when he was still a youngling.

“Adopting one was always on my mind on a slow day… something I thought I was going to do for sure sometime down along the line.” Swindle moved his servo, running his thumb over the little femm’s cheek. His digits were always thicker than a normal bots digits, but putting against her little cheek, it somehow seemed bigger than before.

“So.” Lockdown tilted the chair forward, his prosthetic arm hanging by his side. His optics were glued on the sparkling’s face. “… she’s really mine.”

“… yes.”

“N’ I’m assumin’ despite the frag of a ride she gave ya, yer gonna keep her.”

“… I carried her all this time didn’t I? Why throw it all away after all that?”

“…” Lockdown sighed, pointing his helm to the ceiling. “ _Primus_ Swin. I can’t tell if yer jus’ bein’ stubborn.” He turned his helm so one optic was visible. “Or if yer the most dedicated hard-headed creator I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Swindle stuck out a bit of his glossa. “Eh. Stubbornness saved my skid plate plenty of times in the past before.”

“I’ll say.” Lockdown huffed, moving his helm back down to look at Swindle. “… Swindle—”

“You don’t need to be there for her.”

Lockdown’s optics widened. Swindle turned his gaze away from him, looking down at his little sparkling. “I’m not going to force you to be there for her, so don’t worry about that.”

“… Swin.”

“I know how much you don’t like sparklings, and honestly? I really can’t see you as a caregiver.”

“… Swindle.”

“Don’t expect me to call for you for help raising her okay? I can handle her on my own.”

“Swindle.”

“Can you just promise not to hunt my bounty till she’s old enough to care for herself? I promise to keep her out of your business so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“ _Swindle_.”

“And if you want, I’ll make sure that she doesn’t know about you and—”

“ _WHAT MAKES YA FRAGGIN’ THINK I DON’T WANT TA BE PART OF HER LIFE?!_ ”

Swindle jumped, covering the little femm as he stared at Lockdown in shock.

Lockdown invented, pinching the area between his optics. “ _Look_. Swindle. I get that ya think I wouldn’t want anythin’ ta do with her. But what the _frag_ gave ya the idea I don’t want ta be part of her life?”

“… what?”

Lockdown huffed, crossing his arms and laid his helm on them. “If it were some other bot that had my kid, I probably wouldn’t think twice ta ditch ‘em.”

Swindle frowned deeply, turning his helm away from the hunter. “Well, glad to see you have your priorities straight.”

“No, wait, that came out wrong. What I mean is uh… ah frag it.” Swindle heard something shift, figuring that Lockdown was getting up to leave… until he felt a servo under his chin, tilting his helm up. Swindle’s optics widened as Lockdown’s lips pressed against his, his spark jumped feeling that old rush of excitement and longing in his chest resurfacing.

The merchant’s optics fluttered closed, pressing back against Lockdown’s lips. There was something that always made him melt into Lockdown’s touch, reaching one servo up and pulling him closer.

Time seemed to melt away, leaving only the pair in their own little world. All too soon the kiss ended, leaving Swindle longing for more as Lockdown pulled away and pressed the forehelms together. His bright red optics stared into his violet ones, baring deep into them with surprising gentleness in them.

“If there’s any bot out there I could tolerate havin’ a kid with, it’s you Swin.” Lockdown murmured quietly. “Yer right. I don’t like sparklin’s. Would have like ta have gone my whole life without one.” His gaze shifted down to the sparkling in Swindle’s arms. “But… truth be told. I don’t mind it as much now.” He looked back up at Swindle. “Sure I still don’t like sparklin’s, but she’s… different. She’s quiet fer a new emerged, easy ta handle, n’ nothin’ like the brats I grew up with at the dojo.”

His servo shifted down, brushing his digits against the sparkling’s helm. The femmling shifted, burying her cheek against Lockdown’s digits.

“N’… she’s part of you too.” Lockdown looked back up at him, managing to make a soft smile on his face. “I don’t mind too much knowin’ she’s also half of you.”

Swindle scoffed. “Oh please.” Lockdown looked at him surprised, till Swindle lifted the sparkling up a bit. “She takes more than half of you than me.”

Lockdown stared at him a bit before shaking his helm with a small smirk. “Okay, sure. She’s got more of me in her. But, ya get what I tellin’ ya… right?”

Swindle stared at him a moment before looking down at the sparkling again. “… maybe… I think? Doesn’t clear many things up actually.” He side glanced at Lockdown, smirking a bit. “You never were good with your words when you try to be all mushy and deep feeling.”

“Can ya blame me?” Lockdown chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m usually more of a bot of action than words. That’s more of yer department anyway.”

“Too true.” Swindle smirk grew, chuckling now too.

“… look Swindle.” Lockdown sat at the edge of the berth, keeping his helm down but his voice serious. “Yer right. ‘Bout me not wantin’ to be a caregiver n’ all.” He turned his helm, looking right at Swindle. “But, I thought it over a bit n’ maybe ya… well I mean… if ya like…”

“… Yesss?” Swindle leaned a bit forward, not sure where this was going but couldn’t find it in himself to squash down a growing hope inside his chest.

“If… if ya… want ta…” Lockdown shifted a bit, looking more and more tense by the nanoklik. “I… could…”

“Go on.” Swindle prompted, shifting his arms so he was holding the sparkling in one arm while his other arm rested its elbow on one knee and laid his cheek on his servo with half ladled optics and amused smirk on his faceplate, clearly enjoying seeing Lockdown acting very nervous and out of character. Oh he was going to savor this moment for _centuries_.

“… if… uh…” Lockdown fidgeted on the spot. Swindle watching the pitiful display for a few more moments before finally deciding to take mercy on the bot. Reaching his free servo out, Swindle poked Lockdown in the back, causing the large bot to literally jump in surprise.

Lockdown sharply turned his helm at the merchant, glaring hotly at Swindle. The merchant just smiled, shifting a bit so he was carefully holding out the sparkling towards Lockdown. “You want to hold her?”

The hunter stared at him, looking between the sparkling and him for a bit before slowly nodding, carefully taking the sparkling into his hold. Once she was safely in the hunter’s hold, Swindle relaxed a bit as Lockdown held her carefully in his arms. He kept his optics carefully on her as Lockdown slowly seemed to relax holding their daughter, gazing at her with rare gentle softness in his usual sharp serious look in his optics.

The corner of his intake twitched. Their daughter. What an odd thing to think about. Yet, it somehow felt right to him.

“… you can come visit. If you want.” Lockdown looked up at Swindle. “If you want to be part of her life, you’re welcomed to. Couldn’t stop you even if I would want to.”

The hunter stared at him for a moment. His intake forming into that signature smug Primus fragging smirk of his. “Damn right ya couldn’t. Couldn’t stop me all those other times, doubt ya could stop me now.”

Swindle rolled his optics. Of all the times he had tried to hide under the hunter’s radar he had quickly learned that while he could run, eventually Lockdown would always catch up to him. It was like an endless game of cyber cat and mouse played between them. Swindle could run and hide somewhere where no other bot could locate or stumble upon by accident and only Lockdown would find him there.

An irritating quirk Swindle grew to love over the stellar cycles… looking back at it now, Swindle should have seen that he couldn’t have kept the sparkling a secret from the hunter forever. Thinking on it now, since the whole peace thing happened a century back, bounty hunting had gone up more than ever. Of course Lockdown was called way when it happened, but he always made sure to make a quick call to Swindle when he had some free time to catch up or for business deals to make. Swindle had made sure to answer each of Lockdown’s call, but whenever he missed one and hadn’t answered him back in a few solar cycles, the hunter immediately arrived at his last location and gave Swindle a receptor full when he realized that he was alright.

If Swindle had gone radio silent, no doubt Lockdown would have gone looking for him the moment he realized something wasn’t right. Swindle would have run forever just to stay out Lockdown’s reach, but in the end it would have been futile. Lockdown always caught up to his targets, and chasing him down would be no different. Even if Swindle went to the ends of the universe, Lockdown would have tracked and trailed him down. They were both stubborn in different aspects when came to things they were not willing to let go easily.

“Ya know.” Swindle snapped out of his thoughts as Lockdown spoke up. “Now that yer awake, there’s jus’ one more important thin’ we need ta talk ‘bout.”

Swindle blinked. He was unsure of what Lockdown was referring to as everything that was important already seemed to be talked about. “Like what?”

Lockdown smirked, lifting the sparkling up a bit. “Givin’ this lil’ scraplet a name course! She ain’t gonna be a sparklin’ forever n’ I ain’t too keen on callin’ her ‘kid’ all the time.”

A smile resurfaced on Swindle’s face, relaxing on the berth. “Well. I guess now is as any good time to think of one for her.”

“I’ll say. N’ I jus’ happened ta have the perfect name fer her already.” Lockdown stuck out his chest a bit in pride.

“Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?”

Lockdown’s smirk grew, shifting his arms so the sparkling was secured in his prosthetic arm while his remaining arm shot out and slammed against his chest in a fist, making a loud clanging noise as he proudly revealed the name of their daughter. “Lockdown Jr.!”

“… _Absolutely fragging **NOT**._”

Lockdown’s smirk disappeared, replaced by the normal deep frown that was always present on his face. “No? Whaddya mean _no?_ ”

“I am not letting you name her after yourself! It’s already bad enough she takes more after you, but that’s just plain overboard right there! Plus it’s more of a mech’s name! And she’s a _femm!_ ”

“It’s a good name! Took me megacycles ta think it up!”

“Oh really? Well then Lockdown _Sr_., I’m sure Lockdown _Jr_. would just _love_ having that name, especially when it shows how _young_ she is compared to her _sire_ , Lockdown _Sr._ But please. Go ahead and name her that Lockdown _Sr._ I’m sure she’ll just _love_ the name when she gets older and tells _everyone_ she meets how she was named after her good _OLD_ sire. Lockdown. **_Sr_** _._ ”

“…” Lockdown stared at Swindle, the room going dead quiet as the pair stared at each other. “… I expected ya ta mock it… I braced myself fer it. Ready ta counteract it…” The hunter’s shoulders slumped. “… shoulda known better.”

Swindle huffed, crossing his arms. “Yes. You should have.”

Lockdown sighed and shook his helm. “Okay, so Lock Jr. is out of the question. How ‘bout… Road Rage?”

“ _No_.”

“Oh come on Swin! It’s a good name!”

“For a mech!”

“It’s still a good name!”

“ _For a mech!_ ”

“Fine! Eeeeeh, Switchblade?”

“No.”

“ _What’s Wrong With That One?!_ ”

“We don’t even know if she would even _like_ blades! And I know at least five other bots with that name!”

“Yer makin’ it difficult ta name the kid Swindle!”

“You’re making it difficult coming up with names that either don’t work or are already taken!”

“ _Fine! You_ think up of a name then!”

“Already got one! Kaching!”

“ **NO.** ”

“Wha-?! Come on! It’s a cute name!”

“Yer namin’ her after _money_ Swindle.”

“It’s still a cute name!”

“You name her that or anythin’ related ta money, I’m goin’ ta call ankle bitter Autobot fer her whole life.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“ _Try me._ ”

“Fine! Fine we won’t name her that! But I’ll be the one to think up the name.”

“Why only you?!”

“Because all the names you’ve suggested so far were terrible!”

“None of ‘em were that bad!”

“Lockdown _Jr._?”

“It would still be a good name ta have if she was a mech!”

“Oh so now you’re admitting that it _wasn’t_ a good name for her!”

“I DIDN’T SAY THAT!”

For the next four megacycles, the pair did nothing but argue about potential names for their sparkling that was loud enough to keep the whole building awake well into the night with no one getting a wink of recharge.

Aside from Swindle’s and Lockdown’s little femmling, who slept through the whole thing like no one’s business.


	45. First Transformation, (ShockBlurr)

There was no denying his sparkling was special.

Not that Shockwave had met plenty of sparklings in his life, but Shockrr was certainly far from ordinary. With mixed coding of Decepticon and Autobot, Shockrr was certainly far from normal in a sense. From the day he emerged, Shockrr was almost the size of a new emerged Decepticon sparkling. Almost.

He was just a bit smaller than normal for a true pure code Decepticon, but he was certainly bigger than a normal Autobot sparkling. Still, the main factor of the time was that he was healthy.

It wasn’t till later Shockwave notice how _fast_ Shockrr was growing. However, Shockwave didn’t worry as much. Blurr was from a long line of Velocitronians. They were highly known for their speed, so it was only logical that Shockrr had inherited such speed of a Velocitronian from his carrier.

So while other sparklings still needed time to learn to take their first steps, Shockrr was already walking on his own two stabilizers. And before long, he was running circles around bots at top speed. The many bots Shockrr had tripped and surprised with his speed brought such joy to Shockwave’s spark.

His spark was filled with even more joy when his child showed to be just as intelligent as his creators. The first time Shockwave had seen all the high scores on his report, pride swelled inside him. He had spent a good half megacycle bragging about his son’s intelligence to an annoyed Cliffjumper.

Yet, while Shockrr excelled in physical and intellectual skills, there was just one thing he greatly lacked in.

Transformation.

A young Cybertronian needed to reach an age of fifty stellar cycles for their T-cog to online for their first transformation to work. Transformation was essential to a bot, as it was a major part of a bots life.

Shockwave had been counting down the solar cycles for the day his son’s fiftieth emergence day just to see which vehicle Shcokrr would take after. Only to be sourly disappointed when nothing happened. At first, he though his son was just a bit of a late bloomer, but after a couple of solar cycles had turned into an orbital cycle, he started to suspect something was wrong.

Even Blurr had grown a bit worried for their child when he couldn’t transform.

But no matter which doctor that took him to, there was nothing that they could find that was wrong with Shockrr, so there was nothing to be done about it. Anger boiled inside of Shockwave. Nothing wrong? Nothing Wrong?!

His son was unable to transform! He couldn’t turn into vehicle mode and those doctors had the spark plugs to tell him that _NOTHING_ was wrong with him?! They were lucky his conjunx was there to keep him calm, or else there would have been a few missing bots!

Even so, Shockwave hoped his child was just a late bloomer and he would soon transform.

But as the stellar cycles passed, Shockwave’s hope dwindled.

Now his child was a little over two hundredth stellar cycle, and he had yet to show any signs of transformation.

Shockwave glanced up from his work. Shockrr was seated quietly in his seat, kicking his stabilizers slowly as his deep blue optics were glued to the datapad in his servos. No doubt the young mech was working on his assigned homework. Shockwave had never been to any schooling system in his life, and neither had Blurr. Both had different reasons why, but they both agreed that Shockrr needed proper schooling, even if they were both worried about how Shockrr would handle it.

As it turned out, Shockrr took it very well and even excelled in all his studies. And even far beyond as well. It was only natural since both of his creators were spies with high in intelligence and info gathering.

Still though, while his scores were rather impressive, it seemed his social skills were largely lacking. Another thing he had seemingly inherited from his creators. Shockrr was a nice young bot, yet he hardly interacted with other bots his age unless they interacted with him first.

It was something that concerned his teacher a bit when they took notice of Shockrr’s lack of interaction with the other young bots in his class and brought this concern to light to Blurr one solar cycle. At first neither had thought about it much, but then they started noticing how their son would distance himself from other bots outside of his classes as well.

Normally Shockwave wouldn’t have thought much about it if Shockrr was raised alongside other Decepticons, but since he was on Cybertron surround by Autobots, his child’s behavior certainly would catch the attention of bots who were keen to detail. So far no one else had brought this issue up to them, but Shockwave could see the concerns building on bots faces when they notice Shockrr’s large lack of interests in other younglings.

Softly venting, Shockwave placed his datapad down. This behavior needed to stop. “Shockrr?”

The young mech looked up from the datapad, turning those deep royal blue optics on him. “Yes Sire?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Shockrr tilted his helm. “It is involving my scores at school?”

“No. Far from it.” Shockwave shook his helm. “Though, it is something related to school.”

“Like what?”

“Well…” Shockwave pondered, wondering how he could phrase his question properly. “It’s about your… reluctance to spend any time with other young bots your age. Is there something wrong?”

Shockrr shook his helm. “No. I just don’t want to be around them.”

“That part is very obvious. But is there a reason why you refuse to hang out with them?” Shockwave gently pressed. “If there’s a problem, I would like to know. Any information you can share will give me clue as to why you don’t spend any time making acquaintances with you classmates. Wouldn’t you like to make a friend or two?”

“What’s the point?” Shockwave’s antenna twitched. “It’s not like there’s any point to it. I don’t mingle with bots my age because I see no point to.” Shockrr gazed down at his datapad. “I already told Carrier why, but I don’t see the fuss everyone is making it out to be. So I like to be alone, is that such a big deal?”

“…” Shockwave hummed, scratching the side of his helm in thought. Shockrr did have some good points, but he had a feeling that there was something more to that. “… I see.”

“… it’s not that I don’t want friends.” Shockrr spoke quietly. “I just don’t… none of the others I like me. I just… find it hard to bond with.”

“Other’s… like you?”

“You know.” Shockrr looked up at him. “Half Decepticon, half Autobot.”

Shockwave’s claws dug into his desk. Ah. Now he understood. Shockrr looked like a full Autobot youngling, but he was the only mixed bot in his class, and possibly Cybertron as well. “… I see… Still, I don’t see why you wouldn’t try to make a friend in your class. It shouldn’t matter that you are not engaging with your fellow classmates just by the fact that you are not a full Autobot like the others.”

“… I know.” His son looked down at his peds. “But…”

“… yes?”

“Having friends mean developing trust, right?”

“Correct.”

“And if that’s true, that means I would need to tell them my deepest secrets… right?”

“… Not necessarily. You can keep some things to yourself and not have to share it with others.”

Shockrr looked at him slightly. “But everyone at school want to know everything about me. Even the teacher wants to know lots of different stuff about me.” His gaze went back to his datapad. “… and I don’t like it.”

“I see.” Shockwave locked his claws together. He would need to have a talk with the teacher about this on a later date and maybe talk to Blurr about this as well at home later.

The pair went quiet for a moment, gazing at their respective datapads. The silence was only broken when there came a knock on the door. Shifting in his disguise, the undercover Decepticon got up to answer the door.

“Yes? Ah, Agent Cliffjumper.” Longarm smiled a little at the agent.

Cliffjumper saluted. “Sorry to interrupt you work Longarm Prime sir. But there seems to be something wrong with the computer.”

“Oh? Did you try turning it off and on a couple times?” Longarm asked with a small smirk on his faceplate. Shockrr giggled as Cliffjumper’s frown grew deeper. “Jokes aside, what seems to be the problem?”

“There appears to be a problem with the security systems. It appears we have a breach in it.”

Longarm’s optics widened. “Really now? Now this is certainly serious. Have you tracked it down to its source?”

“I have. And…” Cliffjumper gazed over Longarm’s shoulder. The head agent turned his helm a bit, looking to where Cliffjumper was gazing at. Which turned out to be his own son.

“… what are you implying here agent Cliffjumper?” The undercover spy asked, not looking how the bot was eyeing his son in such a manor.

“Sir. Have you seen your scheduling lately?” Longarm raised an optic ridge.

“Not recently. Why?” Cliffjumper held up a datapad to Longarm. Taking it and looking down at it, he immediately saw the problem. His schedule, which had been tight as of lately, suddenly had a lot more free time then he ever had seen in a long time… was it growing? Looking at all the other agents time schedules, only two more seemed to be tampered with.

Sentinel Minor, or Prime soon if his Intel gathering was correct, had hi time booked solid for work and nothing more.

And a certain blue speeding agent.

“… I see.” Longarm narrowed his optics at his son. “… Well! I’m sure this isn’t such a big issue. Especially concerning that _someone_ should not mess with something that isn’t his and thinks he can get away with it and expect not to get in _MAJOR TROUBLE_.” There was a brief silence, and then there was a sound of digits tapping on a screen hurriedly. In less than a cycle, the schedule was back to normal.

Smirking, Longarm handed the datapad back to Cliffjumper. “I’ll have a small word with him about this.”

“I hope so.” Cliffjumper huffed. “But, uh, if I may say something sir?” He motioned Longarm closer and spoke in a low tone. “Kid has potential to be a great agent if he can hack into a high security system like this. But maybe you should teach him a few pointers before he does some serious damage elsewhere.”

“I’ll have a word with Blurr about this.” Longarm chuckled, closing the door and turning all three optics on his child.

Shockrr had his optics glued to the screen of his datapad, tapping away at it. Longarm frowned a bit, moving to stand in front of his son. The pair were silent for a long moment.

Longarm frowned down at his child, reaching out and snatching the datapad away from him. “Wha-?! Hey!” Shockrr frowned up at him as the older mech searched through the datapad.

To his surprise, it was still a regular homework datapad. Yet he could tell Shockrr had down some tampering and managed to hack into the Metroplex security systems. He raised an optic ridge, looking down at his child. “… how in the name of Primus did you manage to hack into the Autobot Intelligence systems with just a homework datapad?”

Shockrr shrugged. “Eh. I’ve worked with less than suitable devices before.”

Longarm looked at his son in concern. “And… what is that supposed to mean?”

“Well—” Shockrr began, but before he could say anything, there was a loud banging on the door, startling Longarm and making Shockrr yelp out in fear.

“AGENT LONGARM! I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A FEW SERIOUS WORDS WITH YOU!” Longarm frowned at Sentinel’s angry outburst.

“In a moment Sentinel I—” Longarm gazed away from the door to his son. Only he didn’t find his son there. He found a mini orange color version of his conjunx sitting right on the floor in front of the chair. Longarm did a double take, staring at the mini vehicle before him.

|Um, Sire? Where did my arms and stabilizers go?| The little car asked.

Longarm continued to stared at the mini car for a moment longer, reaching one servo up to the side of his helm. “Uh… Blurr? Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?”


	46. Reunited (BlitzBee)

The quiet hum of his systems onlinning filled his receptors.

Slowly blinking his optics open, Bumblebee sight was greeted by darkness. The light from his optics gave out just enough sight for Bumblebee to see a familiar dark tan arm his helm was laid against. Glancing up, a small smile crossed his face. Blitzwing was still in recharge, his face currently on Hothead and snoring up a storm.

It was a wonder how he was able to sleep through such racket the larger mech made. It could have been account that he and Blitzwing spent so much time together that they were hardly bothered by the quirks they had. The smile on his face grew, shifting a little closer to the larger bot.

Blitzwing’s body gave off a huge amounts of heat, making recharging next to the bot on a cold night a wonderful idea. Other bots could say it was dangerous for a smaller bot like him to be recharging next to a bigger bot like Blitzwing. Bee almost laughed, recalling all the times Blitzwing had voiced the same concerns way back when they started hanging out in secret.

It had taken a long for Blitzwing to grow comfortable enough to let Bumblebee recharge next to him. He still minded not to harm Bee when they recharged, but Bumblebee always felt comfortable around Blitzwing and trusted him enough to be careful.

Bumblebee scooted closer to Blitzwing’s face, feeling the hot puffs of air venting in and out of the ex-Con’s intake. Smiling mischievously, he inched just a bit closer to the triple changer’s face and placed a small quick kiss on his cheek. Blitzwing muttered something inexplicable in his recharge, quickly settling back to his loud snores.

Smiling a bit, Bumblebee was content to watch his lover recharge peacefully. It lasted only a few moments till his audibles picked up on some quiet beeping below him. Looking away from Blitzwing, Bumblebee gazed down at his arms where a pair of blue optics stared back up at him sleepily. Bumblebee’s smile grew, pulling his daughter closer and nuzzled her cheek.

The femmling beeped, nuzzling back in a sleepy manner. Bee smiled down at her, checking his internal clock to find that it was nearing seven o’clock in the morning. The sun was bound to start raising up soon in the sky and everyone was sure to start waking up soon.

A frown came upon his face at the thought of everyone else.

He… really wasn’t in the mood to see them. Not yet at least.

His attention was brought back into focus as the little femmling started to quietly beep quickly four times in a row, pause, and then repeated. Uh oh, he knew what that meant. It was the ‘feed me now or I will only get louder and louder’ signal beeps.

Bumblebee stiffened a bit as Blitzwing started to shift around them, grumbling something before his face shifted to Random and settled down. Bumblebee waited a moment before sighing in relief. Good. Blitzwing was still in recharge. Bumblebee would really hate if Blitzwing was disturbed for his nap. The big guy needed his sleep as much as he could get for what he’s been through the last couple of solar cycles.

Bumblebee looked down at their sparkling as she kept repeated her series of beeps. His frowned deepened a bit, pressing a digit to his intake. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what that would accomplish as the sparkling only took this as encouragement and started to get louder.

Panic began to fill Bumblebee as Blitzwing stirred. Quickly as he could, the scout slipped out carefully from his lover’s hold and moved to the far end of the basement. A quick look behind him, Bumblebee smiled to himself as Blitzwing slept on without any disturbance now. His smiled didn’t stay on as he turned his focus to his little femmling. She was looking up at him, still letting loose those small beeps of hers.

Rolling his optics, Bumblebee headed for the door. Shifting the sparkling carefully to one arm, Bumblebee carefully opened the door, being sure not to make too much noise on his way out. The outside was still fairly dark with just the barest hints of the sun rising up in the distance.

Stopping a moment, Bee took in his surroundings, taking in the familiar sights of the city. His optics traveled of the tall buildings that reached the sky, smiling a little as the sky’s colors shifted from a star filled dark night to a slow light blue.

“Beep beep beep beep!” His focus was once again snapped to his sparkling, who was only growing increasingly loud with her beeps. Bee smiled a bit, booping her gentle between her optics. The act got her to quiet down a bit, staring up at him with those big blue optics of hers.

Bee smiled down at his daughter, nuzzling the top of her helm and continued on his way to the front of the base. He knew he could have taken the elevator, but that would have made too much noise and woken Blitzwing up. So, it was better if he had taken the long way around to reach the main area of the base.

Lifting the front door up, Bumblebee peeked inside, looking around to see if any of the others were awake. He looked around the room once, twice, four times just to be sure before finally stepping inside the building. Quickly Bee headed for the supplies, he searched around till he found a small special made energon cube for his daughter Ratchet had made specifically for her.

The sparkling was getting close to four orbital cycles old now. She was getting to able to process small bits of energon in her tanks though she still needed the special batch as Ratchet was still concerned for her health. Her nanites were fine, which was the biggest concern when she first emerged. Luckily, she didn’t inherit any of Bumblebee’s poor nanites and was doing fine.

Bee smiled down at his small sparkling, seating himself on the couch. The sparkling immediately made a grab for the energon as Bumblebee lifted the cube up to her. The femme was pretty happy when her lips made contact with the cube, gurgling as she happily began eating. Bee kept the cube steady as the sparkling ate, liquid dribbling down her cheek, making quite a mess in the process.

Bee only smiled and rolled his optics, moving the cube away when it was halfway gone. Goodness she was a mess, though the little femme had no clue of the mess she was covered in. It was lucky she wasn’t too much of a fussy sparkling as Bumblebee took out a cloth of his subspace and began cleaning off the mess on her. When Bee got most of the mess off her, he returned back to feeding the rest of the cube’s contents to his sparkling.

Luckily, she didn’t make much of mess this time and was able to eat without any energon dripping down her face. A soft smile crossed Bee’s face, hugging his sparkling gently.

Suddenly, Bee stiffened. He gazed around, looking for any signs of something around the room. He grew intensively worried as the nanokliks went by, looking around for something.

About a cycle, Bumblebee stood up from the couch suddenly. With quick steps, he went to the supplies, grabbing a can of oil while keeping a hold on his daughter and made his way out of the base.

His steps were quick and he didn’t feel safe, not till he and his sparkling were back under the base and the door was slammed shut behind him, encasing them in complete darkness. Bee took a few deep vents, trying to calm his racing spark down inside his chest. His back pressed against the door, sliding down to the ground. His sparkling let out a small beep as he hugged her close to his chest, completely disregarding the oil can as it started rolling away from him.

Try as he might to get his spark to calm down, his venting kept hitching with coolant starting to build up in his optics. Why couldn’t he calm down?

“Hummel?”

Bee’s optics widened. Oh no. He woke up Blitzwing.

Bumblebee scrubbed at his face, trying to get rid of the coolant in his optics before Blitzwing could see them. He didn’t want Blitzwing to see him crying.

“Hummel.” Bumblebee jolted. Frag, he forgot how silent Blitzwing can be sometimes. He shot Blitzwing a shaking smile, hoping that he wouldn’t pick up on his unease.

Unfortunately, he underestimated Blitzwing’s optic for detail. The large bot frowned, reaching out and scoping both Bee and their daughter up in those thick arms of his, hugging them close to his chest. “It’s okay Hummel.” He whispered gently, rubbing Bee’s back in a soothing manner. “I’m here.”

Bee’s venting hitched, burying himself against Blitzwing with their daughter safely secured between them.

* * *

Blitzwing had lived a long life. It was no secret that he had lived and went through so much in the stellar cycles since the day of his creation. He seen the struggles between the Decepticons and Autobots rise, the fallout and participating in the war, being banished in the aftermath of such war, and struggling to survive every solar cycle.

During those times, he had felt and experienced plenty of emotions during that time. Most were unpleasant and nothing he wanted to experience ever again. He lived through horrors and terrors that would scar a bot’s mind forever in their nightmares.

But none of that compared to the complete horror and fear he felt seeing the state his Hummel was in when they finally found him.

He had expected Hummel to be in some state of damage, but he expected was NOT prepared to see the state his Hummel was in.

The sight made his tanks twist in ways he hadn’t felt before. He wanted to look away but at the same time he wanted to scoop up Hummel close to his chest and cry. The Autobots had to physically restrain him when the medic took Hummel away for repairs. He knew Hummel was in capable servos, but his mind could only process that his Hummel was hurt and that he needed to be there for him.

Tense megacycles passed before he got any news on Hummel. Thankfully, his injuries were not as bad as they seemed and the medic had made quick work patching him up.

Relief filled Blitzwing’s spark… until Hummel woke up.

Panic filled him again when he learned Hummel went missing again, but luckily they managed to find him. He however was not prepared to see thick coolant tracks running down his Hummel’s face. Nor was he prepared for Hummel to slam into him and cling to him like a lifeline.

Blitzwing wasn’t sure what his Hummel had gone through, but he wasn’t going to let him suffer anything as long as he lived.

“Beep!” Blitzwing was snapped out of his thoughts, looking down at his family. Family. His mind was still processing that word to himself. Family.

Blitzwing had siblings, but he was never close to any of them. Having actually family was something that had never crossed his mind before. Even being with Hummel all these stellar cycles, the idea of having a sparkling never stuck around longer than a few fleeting nanokliks. Now however, he wondered why he never thought about it more.

Hummel was helping their small femme stand on her peds. She was still far too young to be standing on her own, yet she seemed to like it when she was standing up on her unstable stabilizers. Bouncing in place, the tiny femme squealed with delight as Hummel kept her from falling over.

Blitzwing couldn’t help but chuckle. It seemed their femme was impatient to be standing on her peds, just like her carrier. He wondered if she would be into racing as she got older.

She certainly had a mix of both himself and Hummel in her. Not just by personality, but by looks as well. She was still young a developing, but he could see bits of Hummel showing in her. Aside from the small horns growing on her helm, there were bits of black protoform flesh similar in areas to Hummel’s own. Her optics were wide and large as his, and she certainly had a stubborn streak to her just like her carrier did.

Or maybe that was his? He didn’t really know, and he really didn’t care. As long as she and Hummel were safe and happy, that was all that mattered to him.

Blitzwing twitched, sensing someone approaching and looked over his shoulder, sending a nasty glare at whoever dared to get close to his family.

“Just me.” The Prime ( _Optimus, Optimus, Optimus, calling Optimus Dummkopf_ ) waved slightly. Blitzwing relaxed a bit, allowing the Autobot leader to come closer. It was fine, this bot was safe, he wouldn’t hurt his family. The Prime ( ** _Optimus_** ) gave Hummel a friendly wave which the smaller mech returned before quickly turning his focus back on the small femmling.

“… has he said anything lately? Anything at all?” The Prime ( _OPTIMUS_ ) asked quietly after a while.

Blitzwing let out a soft vent. Of course the mech would ask him that question. “Nein. He hasn’t zpoken a zingle vord to me.” Blitzwing watch as Hummel played with their sparkling.

It was impossible to think about it, but Hummel had been quiet on day one since he woke up. The normal chitter chatter he loved to hear from his Hummel was gone. Vanished. The medic had checked Hummel over, but he couldn’t find anything wrong with Hummel.

He was silent. Completely silent. He didn’t make a peep, even when Blitzwing told his best joke that always made Hummel crack a large smile on his face.

The sudden change had taken everyone off guard, growing concern for the yellow bot as he kept silent. It had already been a couple of solar cycles now, yet there still had been no word out of his Hummel. At least now he didn’t cling to Blitzwing’s side twenty four seven anymore. At least that was somewhat of an improvement.

Though he hardly let their sparkling out of his sight. The moment he held her in his arms again, Hummel refused to let her go or out of her sight. Even when recharging he kept a hold on her, refusing to let go or let someone else hold her.

At first Blitzwing didn’t mind, but he wanted to hold their daughter too!

“… I see.” The Prime ( ** _OPTIMUS_** ) sighed quietly. “It’s just been a few solar cycles now. He should have at least said something by now.”

“Believe me, Hummel rarely ever goes quiet vithout a reason to. And even zen, zat’s hard for him to do.” Blitzwing mused, smiling a bit as he watched his family. “He’s doing better. Ztill ztruggling vith being alone vith the femmling, but certainly getting better.”

“Beeeep!” The femme let out a loud happy beep as Hummel lifted her up, nuzzling his face against hers. She squealed, pressing her face against his as much as she could as her tiny servos griped at his helm. The sight made Blitzwing’s spark melt.

“… you know.” Blitzwing shifted his focus off his family to the Autobot leader, raising an optic ridge. “I think Bumblebee might enjoy spending more time out from the basement. Away from the dark and hanging out with the others on the upper floor.”

Blitzwing narrowed his optics. “Oh zure. I’m zure he vould like zat.” He turned his helm away a bit, growling under his voice. “ _If jou can convince him to leave zat is_.”

“… so come upstairs with us.” Blitzwing’s optics widened, looking at the mech in surprise. “I think Bee would like it if you went with him to the upper level of the warehouse.”

“… are… are jou zerious?” Blitzwing asked, wondering if the Autobot was messing with him or if he was really being honest.

“It would be nice to have Bumblebee back out in the field, but it would also be nice if everyone was on some base level of trust. And he seems to recover with you around. But I would like it if everyone could trust each other.”

“Tell zat to jour medic. He really zeems to not like me.” Blitzwing huffed.

“I understand that Ratchet has some… dislike towards you.” Blitzwing snorted. “But have to understand that he went through some tough experiences in the past that can be tough for him to get over. I had a few talks with him about it.” Blitzwing tilted his helm a bit. “And he’s willing to try for Bumblebee’s sake.”

The larger mech was quiet for a moment, mulling over the bot’s words. He gazed over at Hummel and their sparkling.


	47. Scarlet (SwinLock)

It was there.

It moved back and forth in front of her hiddy spot, back and forth.

Back and forth.

Back and—

THERE!

She pounced, pinning her prey down and delivering a deadly bite to it to kill it quickly, gnawing on it vigorously.

“Heh. Good job kiddo. Ya killed it.” She yelped as she was picked up by the scruff and plopped down on something soft. She wiped her helm around, beeping at the big thing with the zebra face angrily. She was killing it! Why did the stupid big thing have to stop her?!

Lockdown smirked as his kid beeped at him. He would never admit it to anyone, but she sure was dang cute for a sparkling. “What’s the matter squeakers? Did I interrupt yer hunt?”

The little femme let out a long loud beep, glaring at him with those big red optics of hers. Optics like Swindle’s. His gaze went from the sparkling to the still form on the other side of the mattress. Swindle was deep in recharge, sleeping away peacefully and dead to the universe.

Didn’t surprise Lockdown much. Swindle had been stuck caring for their kid for a whole orbital all on his own. Not that it would have been a problem since the kid would recharge most of the time and hardly made a sound. But that didn’t stop Swindle from fretting about every single thing about their kid every single _Primus slagging nanoklik._

“Beep!” Lockdown’s vision was blocked by tiny servos, grunting as a tiny body started climbing on his face.

“Scarlet, get off.” Lockdown grumbled as the femmling kept attacking his face. Scarlet was the name he and Swindle finally settled on after much arguing. But that only happened when the femmling opened her optics and they saw how bright and red they were. That, and they had to settle on something quickly as the other residents in the medical station were getting very tired of their constant arguing.

Still, he kind of liked the name. It was good enough to drive fear into the sparks of her enemies, and it was nice enough for Swindle to find it… ugh, _cute_. _Blegh_.

He let Scarlet crawl over his face for a few more nanokliks before his tolerance finally reached its limits, plucking the young femme off him and plopped her back down on the soft mattress. She bounced a bit before laying sprawled out on the soft covers. Blinking a few times, she laid there for a few moments before turning her helm and shot him one of the weakest attempts of a glare he had ever seen.

Lockdown smirked, rolling his optics. Oh yeah, she certainly was going to have an attitude when she got older. Just like someone he knew too well. His optics traveled over to Swindle.

The merchant was deep in recharge, looking peaceful despite the wild ride he had for a few solar cycles. If any other bot saw him like this, they would probably thought that he was relaxed and at ease. But that would be far from the truth.

If someone looked close at Swindle’s face in a certain angle of light, they could possibly spot a few dark lines under those large optics of his. A complete sign of lack of proper rest. Something Swindle was good at hiding from other bots who didn’t know him well.

Unfortunately for him, Lockdown knew him too well.

“Beep!”

… eeeeh… well enough to spot subtitle hints on Swindle’s frame to know there was something amiss with the bot at least. Still, Swindle was really good at hiding things he didn’t want others to see. Slag, it took him stellar cycles just to guess what bugged Swindle under his armor!

“Beep!” Seems like Swindle could still pull a hidden surprise out from somewhere. Lockdown glanced down at his kid.

His kid.

That was still something he was still trying to process in his mind. She was his, there was certainly no denying that. There was too many physical similarities that clearly showed that she was his. Frag, the experience of feeling his spark get torn to shreds was hard to forget to on the day she emerged just proved that she was his sparkling!

That should have killed any doubt left in his mind… though admittedly, he still had a private CNA testing done while Swindle was recovering. And the results? Surprise surprise. The femme was still his kid. _What a universe._

Still, as she grew older with each passing solar cycle, more and more of her personality started to show. Namely how much of a little terror she could be. He still had no idea how an orbital cycle old managed to get in the highest vent that was way out of reach for both him and Swindle to get to. Or even how she managed to open it without alerting either of her creators.

Getting her down had been easy. Calming an overly freaked and worried carrier wasn’t.

She was clearly his kid alright.

“Beep!” Scarlet shifted her limbs around, wobbly dragging herself towards Lockdown. He watched as she slowly made her way towards him, keeping his optics trained on her. He could be a little mean and move away from her, but he didn’t. He only just watched her as she slowly made her way towards him. There was a glint in her optics. A glint that reminded him of the glint Swindle got in his optics sometimes when he wanted something and wouldn’t stop till he had it.

… Heh.

She certainly had big spark plugs for such a small thing.

And more of Swindle in her than he realized.

“Beep!” The femmling finally reached him, slapping one of her tiny servos on his face with a wide smug look on her face. Yep, she was defiantly Swindle’s kid too.

“Yeah, yeah, ya made it kid. Nice job.” Lockdown snorted, allowing himself to flinch as she kept smacking him in the optic. If it were anyone else, he would have torn out the bot’s optic for it. But this was his kid, so maybe he would let this slide… for now at least.

Scarlet let out a small beep, happily smacking Lockdown’s face a few more times before she let out a big yawn. “Tired already kid? Ya jus’ got up.” Her sire smirked, watching her rub those big optics of hers.

The little femmling beep, looking at him tiredly. Both he and Swindle had noticed that Scarlet seemed to like to recharge a lot. Naturally Lockdown didn’t think about it too much. But Swindle had taken a more worried outlook on this and freaked when Scarlet did something.

Forget about sparklings being hard to raise, _Swindle_ took it to a whole new level! Lockdown had more trouble dealing with the merchant than his actual kid. Slag, the first moment Swindle and their kid were given the all clear to leave the medical station and made it half way to his ship, the merchant started freaking out over the littlest things the femme did! So much so, Lockdown had to drag him the rest of the way while Swindle kept listing things that could be wrong with their kid.

Not a fun time.

Yet Scarlet was the total opposite.

She was a very calm sparkling, even if she did tend to give her creators a scare now and then. Most of the time she just slept through the whole solar cycle without any noise or care. Heck, Lockdown thought she was offline a couple time due to how quiet and calm she was most of time. The only time she ever did get fussy was when she got hungry or neither creator was holding her after a certain amount of time had gone by.

Kid really seemed to like recharging in her creators arms, not that Swindle minded. He liked holding the kid in his arms, even when he was recharging.

Scarlet let out a yawn, crawling closer and snuggling against Lockdown’s neck. “Ya sure ya want ta recharge there kid?”

“beeeeeep.”

“Alright. But if ya get a crick in yer neck, it’s yer own fault.”

“beep.”

It wasn’t long before Lockdown heard the tall tell sounds of Scarlet’s systems shutting down into sleep mode. Shifting around a bit, Lockdown glanced at his kid.

Scarlet was curled up in a small ball with her servos and knees tucked up against her chest. A bit of her glossa was sticking out of her intake, making a little _pppt_ sound with each vent she took.

Lockdown snorted, shifting himself so he could move his daughter carefully. The little femme made a little whine as Lockdown scooted her over to Swindle. Once pressed against her carrier’s chest, Scarlet settled comfortably against Swindle.

Swindle grunted in his sleep, shifting his arms around Scarlet and pulling her closer to him. Lockdown took a moment to admire the scene before him. Watching his sparkling recharging peacefully against…

A frown crossed Lockdown’s face. What exactly was Swindle to him?

He couldn’t quite say mechfriend, though they were probably something deeper than just personal friends with good benefits together. Using an excuse of familiar acquaintance wasn’t an option anymore. Plenty of bots knew they did business together pretty often, and many knew of his claim on the merchant.

Swindle knew as well and played his rolled well when it came to it, yet when all was said and down even he didn’t know what they were exactly in the end. There had been plenty of times where they pretended to be more than just friends, but there had been a few times when they truly felt more than just friends. More intimate moments were they tore down their thick barred walls and saw more to each other than they would ever allow any other bot to see.

Not to mention the plenty of nights they spent together on a berth fooling around. And no matter how many times they vowed it was their last time, they couldn’t help but keep falling into a same rhythm and dance when they met up.

There were even some rare moments where they didn’t even speak to each other and just… stared at each other. No words, no sound, no movement just… them and silence. Staring into each other’s optics and nothing else.

Those moments were rare. Yet Lockdown always wanted those moments the most. Staring into those big optics of Swindle’s, staring into that unique color for almost megacycles on end.

They were pretty. He had to admit they were pretty.

_And deadly._

Swindle knew his optics had an effect on bots. And when he saw the opportunity he would use it no matter what.

More than once Lockdown had fallen into such deadly trap early on, and it took much of his willpower to look away or block out the effects those optics had on him.

Lockdown reached his servo out, but stop. His gazed at his out stretched appendage. It was one of his remaining original parts, something he always wondered if he should replace or upgrade more than just a simple saw. Swindle had often offered to give his arm a few special mods and upgrades before in the past, yet he always turned the mech offers down for some reason.

It wasn’t the mods that were the problem, it was just that for some reason Lockdown didn’t like making any changes to this servo. He could make a few small tweaks here in his servo, but not much to be noticeable. Swindle often asked him why he never changed this servo like he did with the rest of himself, something Lockdown didn’t know himself too well either as he didn’t know why either.

Still, Lockdown kind of liked to keep this servo the way it was. His prosthetic however was not excluded for such treatment. Any mods that Swindle had, it was certain that Lockdown would add it to his hooked limb for sure. He still needed to add the upgrades he bought a long while ago.

Yet, staring at this limb now, there was a mixed deep feeling in his chest. Something that he didn’t like feeling inside him. Pulling it away, the feeling diminished. He stared at it a moment more then tried to touch Swindle with it.

The feeling came back again.

Frowning, Lockdown pulled back the limb, and the feeling receded inside him. Looking between his limb and Swindle, his frown deepened.

“You know.” Lockdown flinched. “They say that the more you frown, the more noticeable wrinkles you get on your face. You should try smiling more.”

“… when did ya wake up?” Lockdown sighed as Swindle shifted.

“A little while ago.” Swindle smirked at him, laying his back against the plush pillows with Scarlet safely tucked in his arms. “It’s kind of hard to miss the feeling of a small body being pressed against one’s own body as well.”

Lockdown grunted, pulling himself on the mattress and plopping himself next to Swindle. “Hm. How was dealin’ with Scarlet while I was gone?”

“Oh just the usual.” Swindle shrugged. “We had a grand old time without any worries here. _Isn’t that right cutie~?_ ” Swindle poked Scarlet’s cheek. It was lucky that Scarlet was such a heavy sleeper, cause otherwise she would have been brawling by now.

“Really? No problems eh? So all those messages ya left on my console were jus’ screams of joy I take it?” Lockdown smirked as Swindle averted his gaze and whistled a little tune. Shaking his helm, Lockdown scooted closer, wrapping him arms around Swindle carefully and pulled him into a side hug. “Ya got ta stop worryin’ so much Swin. Not every little thin’ is gonna kill her.”

“W-Well, yeah, I know, it’s just…” Swindle stared down at their daughter, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. “… I’ve never had any… you I don’t… my creators were—”

“I know Swin.” Lockdown pulled him closer, hugging him tightly. “I know.”

“… I just want to be better than them.” Swindle sighed.

“N’ ya are better than ‘em.”

“I know. I’m just… worried that I might end up like them sometimes.” Swindle leaned against Lockdown, burying himself in the mercenary’s hold.

Lockdown snorted. “You? Like ‘em? Like that would ever happen.”

“But it co—”

“It _won’t_. N’ it _never will_.” Lockdown insisted. “N’ ya know why?”

“… because I haven’t thrown Scarlet down a trash chute yet?”

“…” Lockdown smacked the back of Swindle’s helm. “ _No_ idiot. It’s cause ya actually _care_ ‘bout yer kid. N’ we both know ya would never do anythin’ like that ta any sparklin’.”

“Like Pit I would.” Swindle huffed, hugging Scarlet close. He went quiet for a moment before a smile crossed his face. “You know what? Forget all this sad talk and head for the refueling station.”

Lockdown raised an optic ridge at Swindle’s sudden change of behavior, but didn’t get the chance to voice it as the mech already grabbed his servo and started pulling him off the thick mattress and out the door. “Have I ever told you about the time I spent on Sabor 8-L? Boy that was sure something!”

Lockdown rolled his optics. He already heard the tall before. Plenty of times at that. But he didn’t stop Swindle. He could tell that it was one of Swindle’s ways to forget about his past, and Lockdown was willing to play along with it.

After all, who would want to remember being tossed down a trash chute when they were just a new emerged?


	48. Not A Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Author has an a quick announcement to make.

Hello everyone.

As you may see, this is not a normal chapter of Little Sparks. I’m here to tell you that it’s coming to an end.

NOW BEFORE ANYONE PANICS, I just mean that this story has at least two more chapters before coming to an end. BUT ONLY FOR THIS STORY! IT’S NOT THE TOTAL END SO NO ONE PANIC! As you all have seen, I’ve decided to make the Little Sparks a series a while back!

My reason? Well, I guess it’s because I’ve mashed and focused three sets of relationships together that it’s been confusing a bit of people with all the flipping around. Plus, while I would like to focus on all three, sometimes I only focus on one set for so long or struggling with inspiration that it takes me a while to get to the others. So I’ve decided to split them into three different stories focusing on them!

And, I’ve also decided to let you guys help with my inspiration a bit! You know like prompts! Once in a while, I will set up a small little option prompt of the next chapter, which you will vote on in the comments should you wish to! And don’t worry! I will still be making chapters on my own, I just wish to hear what you guys would like to read in these chapters!

So with that in mind, sometime in February I will post the final two chapters of this story. Then I will be splitting off into three different stories focusing on the three pairs and their little trouble makers! The story may end in a bit, but it lives on in the series and would like to hear what you guys think!

I also might add in a little surprise to the other stories~

So while I’m sad to say this story is ending soon, do not worry as I will still work on it in other series. It’ll just be more focused an organized with a bit of fun twists here and there.

Thank you all for reading this and I hope you understand. Have a good day!


	49. Valentine's Day Specail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who wants a Valentine's Day chapter?!

He shouldn’t be doing this.

None of this was supposed to happen.

He could easily call the whole thing off before thing escalated farther and save himself from the embarrassment of a fool he making himself out to be.

Glancing at the clock, Shockwave cursed. There was no time to call it off. He had taken too long to prepare before his wits began to fail him and doubt started taking hold.

Primus what was he thinking?! Had he really not thought any of this through?! Had he really slipped up on something so terrible and not think of the consequences?! Frag he was such a fool!

“Calm down Shockwave, _calm down_.” The Decepticon mumbled, tapping his helm as he glanced around his living area. It was small compared to a bot his size when he wasn’t in disguise, but it was a relatively perfect for Autobots. Simplicity was always what Shockwave settled on with designs. He didn’t like to make any living space he had acquired.

The main living area was standard at best, with a couch, a couple of shelves lining the walls with thick tomes and artifacts of lost time. The refueling area, where he was currently standing in, was located on the left of the living area and was just as simple as it with the mandatory things anyone would need to have for a working refueling station.

Looking around, Shockwave pondered if he should have put more thought in decoration. Blurr wasn’t one for detail or fancy things like him, but he really wanted to make this night special for him. Tonight marked their tenth stellar cycle of being in a committed relationship.

He had never been in a relationship before and he had never committed to anything besides following Lord Megatron’s order and leadership. He had no idea how he managed to have such a stable relationship with Blurr for so long, but they somehow managed to make it work between them. Ten stellar cycles, has it really been that long since they had been courting each other? It surely couldn’t have been.

It only felt like yesterday when they were only co-workers with a strained working situation. One that Shockwave had no idea how to get out of that would alert others of his true identity, and yet…

Yet somehow, they slowly grew from a tense mistrusting relationship to a more open and understanding one that was built on time, trust, and care. They still had to keep it to a minimal when out in the open and far from any prying optics, but their relationship was certainly something Shockwave would throw his life for to ensure the mech he loved would be safe from any outside Decepticon forces.

He was still very loyal to the cause of Megatron’s rule, but there wasn’t a solid rule to say that one couldn’t pursue a relationship with the enemy. He would know. He checked all the rules for anything of the sort but found no such rule to forbid him from such an act, even though a relationship between Autobot and Decepticon was very much considered taboo on both sides a little before and after the war. But that didn’t stop Shockwave from planning to make his relationship with Blurr work in the long term.

In best case scenario if things worked out between them, he could possibly convince Blurr to join the Decepticons. His speed and intelligence was a surefire way to secure his place in the ranks and factions, along with a few goods words from the double-agent himself to his Lord. He was sure Lord Megatron would see the countless uses for such a mech for the cause.

In the more likely scenario if things didn’t go the way he planned, he could hide Blurr away from the dangers and far from the toxicity of the war. Blurr was much younger than him, and yet Shockwave wasn’t going to taint Blurr’s mind with the cruelties and horrors of war.

He lived through enough of that in his youth.

Shaking his helm, Shockwave gazed around the rooms, trying to find anything to occupy his racing ( _heh racing_ ) mind from it tumbling mess it was turning out to be. “Let’s see, uh. Cleaning, light décor, pleasant conversation pointers.” Shockwave pulled out a datapad from his sub-space, looking over the list of common compliments and overly sickly sweet words that couples he had observed using with each other. A shudder shook through his frame.

Primus, who would be _this_ sappy to use these?! It was fortunate that he and Blurr never use such words other than formalities and work appropriate boundaries. Tossing the datapad over his shoulder, Shockwave made one final sweep of his residence, looking over his special gift to be sure everything was in place before looking at the time. The Decepticon swore loudly. It was already almost time. He wanted to do one more sweep of the place but he threw out another curse as the doorbell rang out.

Blurr was here. Right on the dot like always.

Composing himself, Shockwave shifted to his disguise. It wasn’t to make some false façade to fool Blurr he was dating a Decepticon. The mech knew who he was on day one when they met. He never understood how Blurr figured out that he was a Decepticon, nor did Blurr ever elaborate how he managed to do so. Every time Shockwave tried to press for information, Blurr would just smirk and give him a playful wink.

It used to infuriate Shockwave, but over the stellar cycles he grew to feel more flustered than annoyed. Blurr hardly did anything that was flirty, and any small jesters that he made towards Shockwave was either subtle or just completely meant to be friendly. Shockwave couldn’t honestly remember the last time someone gave him such hints of interest outside of furthering the Decepticon cause.

Calming himself, he put on an easy smile as the door opened and his spark skipped a beat.

He had seen Blurr plenty of times at work and photos on files. But here Blurr was, standing before him, looking much more stunning and beautiful than he ever remembered. Did he wax his armor? He looked like a shining star with the radiance he was producing off him. Dazzling. Simply dazzling.

“Uh/…/Longarm?”

Shockwave snapped out of his daze, resetting his vocalizer. “A-ah, sorry about that Blurr. You look very dashing this evening.” ( _DASHING?! YOU IDIOT DON’T USE WORDS THAT ASSOCIATE WITH HIS SPEED! HE’LL PROBABLY TAKE IT AS AN INSULT OR SOMETHING TERRIBLE!_ ) Shockwave screamed mentally in his mind. It came to halt when Blurr let out a small chuckle.

“Dashing/you/say?/Well/you/sir/look/very/fine/this/evening/as/well.” The agent smiled at him, putting the spy at ease. He didn’t understand how Blurr had such power over him with something simple as a smile, but at the same time he didn’t care. Any gesture and small signs of appreciation or good will towards him from Blurr were special.

Blurr was hard to read at times, but Shockwave was able to pick up a few things over the stellar cycles working alongside with the agent. First being that Blurr tended to keep his history and past to himself, so he had very far few friends who he would let into his life and share his worries with. It had taken a good deal of time for the mech to open up to Shockwave with some of his past, though he could understand why after hearing a bit of his past.

Stepping aside, Shockwave gestured for Blurr to enter his quarters with a soft smile on his face. “Shall we?” Blurr gave him that wonderful smile again as he stepped inside. Once the door shut, Shockwave returned to his normal form and followed after Blurr.

“Oh/did/you/clean/your/residents/recently?/It/looksverycleanandorginizedthelasttimeIwasherewhichwasn’tthatlongagoifIremembercorectlybutitstilllooks/very/nice.” Shockwave blinked, trying to keep up with Blurr’s fast talking conversation. He only caught the beginning of the conversation before he lost it to Blurr’s speed. He let it be. He would need to get used to and learn to understand what Blurr was saying at his speed without telling his mechfriend to slow down so he could understand what he saying. Besides it was just rude to ask someone to repeat their words over and over again.

Shockwave moved to speak when Blurr was close to finish speaking, but his mind came up blank of what to talk about with the Voltronic. Blurr said something about his residence clean right? He could make a small conversation about that. “Ah, well I had a bit of time to make everything presentable for tonight.”

“Because/it’s/our/tenth/stellar/cycle/together/right?” Blurr asked, which Shockwave nodded his helm in confirmation. Blurr optics widened. “Wow./Ten/stellar/cycles./I’ve/never/been/in/a/relationship/before/that’s/lasted/as/long/as/this/one/so/having/one/as/long/as/our/is/truly/stunning.”

“Indeed it is.” Shockwave nodded his helm in agreement. He knew of Blurr’s prior relationship before him. From what he could gather from Blurr and any other bot that knew, it hadn’t been a good relationship. Blurr had ended it far before it could get any worse. Shockwave still had no clue who the bot was as Blurr refused to give any detail about them.

Though he had a feeling he was only doing it to prevent Shockwave from killing the bot.

“So.” Blurr looked up at him with a soft smile on his face. “What/exactly/do/you/have/planned/for/tonight?”

“Well.” Shockwave extended his servo to Blurr, who took it without any hesitation. “I was thinking of maybe something simple for tonight. Like a dinner just for two.” He began listing off his ideas as he spun Blurr around slowly. “Or watching a documentary or maybe looking over some of the archives I’ve managed to bring with me from Kaon.” Placing his other servo on Blurr’s lower back, he dipped Blurr down lightly for only a few moments before pulling him back up. “And then maybe we can spend some time talking. But I’m open to any suggestions you would want to add in for this night.”

Blurr giggled. “You/certainly/have/the/whole/night/planned./I/didn’t/take/you/for/such/a/romantic.”

Shockwave chuckled, rubbing the back of his helm with a small tilt. “Well, it’s nothing too grand or extravagant. And it’s certainly nothing different from all our other dates.”

“So?” Shockwave blinked, gazing down at Blurr questionably. The blue Autobot smiled up at him. “I/like/spending/time/with/you./Every/moment/wespendtogetheris/special/to/mebecauseit’sthetime/I/spend/with/you.” Shockwave tilted his helm, only catching a couple of words in Blurr’s sentences. Blurr was still smiling up at him, taking his servo with both of his own. “Having moments with you, spending time to get to know you and see parts of you that you keep hidden away from others… those are special to me no matter if they’re extravagant or not.”

Shockwave’s single optic widened in surprise. Blurr hardly spoke in what other’s considered to be a normal speed. Normally someone needed to ask him to slow down so they could understand him better, but to see Blurr actually use it without any prompting or being ask to. “Blurr.”

The mech smiled at Shockwave, giving his servo a squeeze. “I don’t need a lot of extravagant things. Just simple gestures that you put your real feelings towards me that make them even more special than over decorated décor. Besides, we both know we’re not into over simplified things like everyone else.”

Shockwave hummed, moving his trapped servo towards Blurr’s face. His thumb traced over Blurr’s cheek, rubbing it slowly. He was right, in a sense. Neither he nor Blurr liked to go overboard with any show of affection towards each other. Small simple gifts or gestures meant so much more to them as they were gestures made only for them and them alone.

Shockwave never knew if any of the gestures were okay or too much at times, and at moments wished that his creators were still online so he could ask them how to properly court someone in a relationship. All his memories he could recall of them were always loving and warm, but their faces and voices have all but been eroded way from his youth. He couldn’t contact his grand sire for such information as no one knew who the carrier had been and Ironmist was not the most sensible and stable Con in the universe.

Plus, he really didn’t want Ironmist of all bots to find out that he was dating an Autobot instead of a Decepticon like all of his ancestors had in the past. If he knew Lord Megatron’s wrath would be bad, his grand sire would surely be even worse! No way in Primus to Pit was he ever going to suffer his grand sire’s wrath!

His personal life was his alone to have and not spill every detail out to anyone who asked about it.

Not unless he wanted to share some of his past with someone who matter to him. The bad and the good.

His optic gazed carefully at Blurr’s face, looking at each small little detail on that white face of the agent. Not many could see it, not if they got real close and squinted their optics, but tiny thin scratches littering Blurr’s face, hidden perfectly in the pure whiteness of his face. The first time Shockwave finally saw those marks, he had been livid to find out how Blurr had obtained these scars.

Blurr had assured him that he wasn’t in any pain and they no longer hurt, but it did little to sooth out all the hidden rage deep inside him. It didn’t help that Blurr felt somewhat largely ashamed of his scars so much that he had for a large part of his youth covered his whole face with a mask to hide his scars. Most of the worse ones had been taken care of and healed with time, but there were still plenty left over. Still there, silently mocking Blurr for his past.

Shockwave traced the tip of his thumb over a small scar under Blurr’s left optic. He couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t understand how someone who was supposed to dependable could be so monstrous to their very own creation.

“I/know/that/look/stop/it.”

“What look?” Shockwave feigned innocence as Blurr glared at him slightly with a small frown on his face.

“You/have/the/I’mgoingtofraggingkill/those/bot’s/whodarecallthemselves/creators/whentheyarereally/monsters/look/on/your/face.”

“My face is always the same Blurr.” Shockwave gestured to his face. “Not much to go by when it’s only an optic and nothing else.”

Blurr gave him a soft smile, tapping the side of his helm with almost a knowing look in his optics. “Mmmm/maybe/butyouforget/that/I/myselfam/alsoaspy/and/a/very/good/one/at/that/soit’seasy/for/metospot/the/stuble/hints/and/gestures/onabot’sbody./I’ve/just/beeenableto/pick/uponafew/keys/factorsthatyoushow/when/you’reinyour/true/form.”

“Really? And what exactly can you pick up with my body language right now?” Shockwave asked in a teasing manner, though he was interested to learn how Blurr managed to pick up such hitns.

“Well/for/starterstheglowof/your/optic./You/may/or/may/nothavenoticedbut/deppenedingon/yourcurrent/mood/your/opticshiftslightintnessity.” Blurr tapped the corner of one of his optics. “When/you’re/in/acertainmood/your/optic/tendstorefeltthatcertain/mood/alongside/withaangletiltof/you/helm/orgestureofyour/antenna/servos.”

“Really?” Shockwave took a glance at his other servo.

“Ohyes/I’ve/seenyoudoing/that/acoupleoftimes/like/when/you’rehappy/or/optic/glowsbrightlyandyour/antenna/stick/straightup/or/whenyou’reangry/there’s/a/dimglowtoyour/optic/while/surprise—” Blurr stopped, sniffing the air. “Doyou/smellsomething/burning?”

“What? SLAG!” Shockwave rushed over to the refueling area, cursing when he saw thick smoke coming out of the oven. Throwing the door open, Shockwave covered his face as he reached in and took out smoothing burning and producing thick columns of smoke. He managed to get it to the counter before the intensity of the heat burned his digits and made him drop it.

“Frag.” Shockwave growled, waving his servos in an attempt to cool them of the burning pain. “… ah frag.” A groan of annoyance rumbled in Shockwave as he looked at the smoking item on the counter.

Blurr came up beside him, looking at the black bubbling questionable concoction sitting on the counter. “…/um/what/exactly/is/that?”

“It was supposed to be dessert.” Shockwave sighed with clear disappointment in his voice. “For after dinner.”

Blurr gazed at the item that was supposed to be food, tilting his helm as if pondering how this could be food. It was black and chard all over, with the insides bubbling in thick questionable liquid that made an odd hissing noise when a bubble popped. Both bots cringed when a large bubble burst, spraying out droplets of the ruined dessert everywhere.

Blurr was silent as he stared at the ruined dessert for a good long moment before turning his gaze to Shockwave. “Soooo… what’s this supposed to be?”

“It was supposed to be sweet oil.” Shockwave looked at the item, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Your favorite.”

Blurr hummed, moving to touch it but pulled back when the thing sputtered and spat. “…/I’m/not/sureifthisis/exactly/thewayIlike/it.”

Shockwave sighed, shaking his helm. The dessert was ruined, it was no doubt a sign that this date was also going to be a disaster. The pair stood there for a while before Blurr spoke up. “Well. How about we skip out on dessert? Being with you is sweet enough.”

Shockwave nearly doubled over in surprise, staring at Blurr who had a smirk on his face. “…that was the most idiotic use of words I’ve ever heard come out of your intake.”

Blurr only giggled, making Shockwave’s spark flutter with ease. Maybe it won’t be such a bad date after all.

* * *

“Okay Blitz, where exactly are we going?”

“Just keep valking forward Hummel! Ve’re almost zere!”

Bee rolled his optics, but continued to move. He didn’t know where Blitzwing was taking him, or why. The large Decepticon had woken him up from his sleep in the middle of the night with a series of texts to come visit him at their secret spot, then the moment he arrived he got blindfolded by his mechfriend who then started to pull him along in an unknown direction.

“Is the blindfold really necessary Blitz?” Bee tugged on the item covering his optics. He couldn’t tell if it was plastic or rubber.

 _Whirr._ “Don’t Pick At It!” His servo was moved away from the blindfold. “Jou’ll Ruin Zee Zurprise!”

“Blitz we’ve been walking for cycles now and we’re not even there yet. I don’t know where we’re going or which direction is which or if there’s a tree in front of me and it really doesn’t help that I can’t even see my own servo in front of my face.” Bee waved his servo to emphasize his point, which was quickly grabbed by a larger servo.

 _Whirr._ “Zen I’ll zimply just hold jour zervo and guide jou zere.”

Heat flooded in Bumblebee’s cheeks. “O-Okay. But don’t you think the blindfold is a bit much when we’re not even close to this surprise you’ve got set up?”

 _Whirr._ “Nein nein. It’s got to be a zpecial zurprise! If jou zaw it before ve get zere, it’ll ruin everyzing!”

“Alright alright, I’ll keep it on.” Bee huffed and tried not to focus on how warm Blitzwing’s servo was. “… sooo, how’ve you been? The last time I saw you was, like, weeks ago!”

 _Whirr._ “It vasn’t zat long. Just a couple of zolar cycles.”

“It was still a long time for me.” Bee huffed squeezing Blitzwing’s servo. “You hardly texted me or anything. I was starting to get worried.”

 _Whirr._ “Awwww~! Zat’s zo cute! Jou vere vorried for little old Blitzwing!”

“I’m not cute!” Bumblebee huffed. “I don’t understand why you always thing that I’m cute! We’ve known each other for stellar cycles. Why do you always have to call me cute?”

“Because jou are! Jou’re zo cute to me it’s impossible to zink of jou of anything else!”

“Well maybe you should try! I can’t be anything than just cute to you. Isn’t there anything you like about me other than that?”

 _Whirr._ “Hmm. Vell, zat’s a bit tricky Hummel.”

“Why?”

“Vell, if I vere to list off every little zing zat I love about jou, ve vould be here all night.”

Bee’s cheeks became warm again, trying to ignore the spinning joy inside his spark. “W-Well, maybe you could tell me a few of them? Just so I know what exactly it is that you like.”

Blitzwing was quiet for a moment. Bee started to wonder if he overstepped a boundary when Blitzwing spoke up. “Vell, I like jour determination. It’s mostly ztubbornness talking, but to zee jou put jour mind on zomething and never ztop is very… admirable.”

“… really?” Bee looked up to where he was hopefully looking at Blitzwing’s face. “You think I’m admirable like that?”

“Ja. Very much. Zough, its nothing compared to jour loyalty to jour friends.” Blitzwing gave Bumblebee’s servo a squeeze. “Zee vay jou care about zem like zey vere jour family, how jou risk jour own life for zem… vhich I might add is a very ztupid zing to do.”

Bee only shrugged. Yeah he knew it was stupid to throw his life away like that, but he didn’t want any of his friends to get hurt as well. Better him than them.

“Aside from zat and a afew other zings, jou have a very open and caring personality. Ja zome of zem are very questionable, but it’s vhat makes jou jou Hummel. And I vouldn’t have it any other vay.”

Bee couldn’t help the huge smile on his face. “Well don’t expect any big changes from this guy, cause he’s staying the same for a long long time!”

That got a snort out of Blitzwing. “Oh now zat makes me zo comfortable.”

“Hey you just said—!” Bee yelped a bit, feeling himself suddenly being lifted up and set down again.

“Zorry. Tripping hazard.” _Whirr._ “But zee good news is zat ve’re here!”

“Really? Awesome! Can I take off the blindfold off now?”

“Ja, jou can take it off now.”

“Finally!” Bee reached for the blindfold. “Not being able to see is the _worst._ Not as bad as not being able to talk but still ba—… whoa.”

Bumblebee’s intake hung open as he took in the sight before him. It looked like an amusement park. No, wait. It WAS an amusement park! An old, ruined, rundown amusement park with many of its old rides still intact but withered and worn due to the exposure of the elements and clear lack of care. Bee could make out a few rides of the park, most notably the large roller coaster in the off distance.

But that wasn’t all that there was. Some of the normal structures of the place had been clearly tampered with. Metal and rides were bent and distorted with, bent and twisted in areas that had once been straight and leveled. Many of the metal had large burn marks on them, still covered in soot and the off coloration of blue that show where the metal had been metaled and soldered back together.

But what was even stranger was that the tampered rides had strings of lights wrapped around them. Bee wouldn’t have noticed them had they not suddenly come on when he went over to inspect them. Twisting his helm, Bee shot Blitzwing a smirk as the large Con stepped away from a generator. “Blitz, did you have anything to do with this?” Bee pointed at the structure with one servo on his hip.

“ _Mmmmmmmaybe?_ ” Blitzwing giggled, his glossa rolling out from his jagged denta. It didn’t stay long before it switched back to Icy, who was smirking as he walked up to Bumblebee. “Zo, how do jou like it?”

“Like it? Blitzwing this is amazing!” Bee threw his arms up in the air, looking at each of the structures Blitzwing had clearly tampered with. Now that he could see it better with the lights, he could make out bits and shapes that looked like hearts and flowers. “I didn’t know you could do welding as an art skill!”

“Mm. I can’t.” Blitzwing gazed at one of his works, frowning deeply at the misshapen thing. “I’m not as crafty as vith zculpting. Metal vorking is clearly not a zkill I possess.”

“But these are still good.” Bee smiled up at his mechfriend. “Sure it’s not as good as your sculptures, but you certainly have more art talent then I’ll ever have in five lifetimes together.”

Blitzwing cracked a small smile at Bee’s compliment. “Danke.”

“Bitte.” Bumblebee grinned, looking around with wide interest at Blitzwing’s artwork. “… Wait. Not that I don’t like this, but why did you go through all the trouble of making all this as a surprise? And how did you even find this place?”

“Ah vell, I knew jou vould ask about zat.” Blitzwing rubbed his chin. “I remember during one of our last conversations zat jou explained to me about zese amusement parks and zese zings called holidays zat zese organics—”

“Humans.”

“Of course, vhat zey call holidays. And how jou explained a certain day vhere… um…” Blitzwing started to fidget, looking embarrassed. “Vhere c-couples spend time together and celebrate l-love.”

“You mean… Valentine’s Day? That day was months ago Blitz.”

“I know I know.” Blitzwing sighed, covering his face. “And it vould have made more zense if it had been zat day tonight, but vell zince it isn’t I zought maybe ve could have our own Valentine’s Day for one night?”

“… you mean… like a date night… while pretending it’s Valentine’s Day?” Bee asked with a tilt of his helm.

Blitzwing only nodded him helm slowly.

“… AWWW~! Blitz~! I didn’t know you could be such a big romantic!” Bumblebee teased, shocking Blitzwing with his response.

 _Whirr._ “VHAT DO JOU MEAN JOU DIDN’T KNOW I COULD BE ROMANTIC?!” Blitzwing screamed in Bumblebee’s face though the small mech hardly flinched and had an easy smile on his face. “I’ve Gave Jou Plenty Of Romantic Gifts And Gestures In Zee Past! How Could Jou Not—!”

Bee shot his servos forward, grabbing Blitzwing’s helm and pulling him close enough to lean in and press a delicate kiss on his lips. Blitzwing twitched at the action, but slowly leaned in a kissed back, wrapping his arms around Bee as his engines rumbled with delight.

After a few moment the pair pulled away from their kiss but kept their helms pressed together. “I was only kidding Blitz, don’t worry.” Bee purred as he starred into Blitzwing’s visor. “You’re basically the biggest romantic I know. Figuratively and literally.”

 _Whirr._ “Zat’s good to know.” Blitzwing chuckled, moving back a bit. “I honestly zought zat zis vould have been too much.”

“Since when have we ever done anything that’s _too much_?”

“Fair enough.” Blitzwing shrugged, leaning back. “And to answer jour last question, I looked up a few places zat had been abandoned for a long vhile and found zis place. It took a vhile to actually find, but it paid off in zee end.”

“It sure did.” Bumblebee gazed around the area, looking at everything that he could see. An idea suddenly popped in his helm, smiling mischievously. “Hey Blitz, have you explored the whole place yet?”

“Vell nein. I haven’t yet but—” Blitzwing paused, looking at Bumblebee carefully. “… jou vhat to go exploring zis place don’t jou?”

“Of course I do!” Bee practically bounced on his peds as Blitzwing rolled his optic. “Do you know how many abandoned places there are to explore in the city? This is like, a total adventure quest right here just begging to be checked out!”

Blitzwing hummed, looking off in the untouched area of the park.

“Annnd.” Bumblebee leaned in. “I hear most parks usually have the Tunnel of Love in them.”

“Zee Tunnel of Love? Vhat zee frag is zat?”

“A ride dedicated to romance where couples can make out a lot in privacy.”

It took a moment for Bee’s words to register in Blitzwing’s mind, but once it did, his face switched to Random. “Oooooooo~! Jou naughty little Autobot~! I like jour plan.” The large Decepticon hopped up to his peds. “Come on! Last one to find zee tunnel is a rotten rusted zlow poke!”

“Which is defiantly going to be you!” Bee revved his engine as Blitzwing took off cackling. Bee smiled as he moved to follow Blitzwing. He only took a small step before he was suddenly hit with a dizzy spell, groaning a bit and leaned against the welded artwork, pressing his servo to his temple.

“Not now. Not now.” Bee quietly whispered to himself, waiting for the dizziness to pass. “You can pass out _after_ your date with Blitzwing. You can’t worry him with anything minor you got going on with you.”

“Come on Hummel! Jou’re falling vaaaaaay behind!”

Shaking off his dizziness, Bee smiled as he cupped his intake. “I’m only being nice and giving you a head start Blitzbrain!” He heard Blitzwing cackle in the distance, smiling to himself as he rushed off to join Blitzwing.

* * *

“I hate everything.”

“You hate a lot of stuff.”

“I hate a lot of bots.”

“That’s fair. Some if not most are intolerable to be with.”

“I fraggin’ hate the situations ya always manage ta drag me into.”

“… yeah that’s fair I guess.”

Lockdown let out a tired sigh, getting up off the wall he was leaning against. “Ya know, yer not much of a conservationist as ya usually are Swindle.”

“Well maybe you should try talking to me when I’m not trying to concentrate on building something.” Lockdown shot Swindle a glare, yet it prove to be ineffective as Swindle was busy digging through and taking out random parts into his subspace. He didn’t know why he bothered to let Swindle use this small corner of his ship as a stand-in workspace, though he did like watching Swindle build stuff from scratch.

“What are ya even buildin’?” Lockdown tried to get a peek at whatever Swindle was building this time.

“Ah ah ah ah!” Swindle blocked Lockdown’s view, throwing him a smirk over his shoulder. “No peeking~”

Lockdown scowled, having half of mind to clock Swindle in the jaw for being cheeky. “Ya been workin’ on this thin’ fer nearly an orbital cycle Swindle. N’ ya haven’t even told me what yer makin’.”

“That’s because it’s a surprise!” Swindle waved his servos, doing a little dramatic flair with his digits. “And I really don’t work well when bots look over my shoulder when I’m working. It distracts me, and that’s not a good thing when working on delicate material.”

“Delicate my aft. You can carry around a nuke that could go off by the slightest touch in that endless subspace of yers n’ be completely fine.”

“Oi! I’ll have you know that I would never do something as dangerous as that!”

“Oh really?” Lockdown leaned down so his optics were at level with Swindle’s, staring into those big purple optics with clear doubt.

“… w-well okay, I’ve done some pretty dangerous things in the past. But nothing ever on that level!”

Lockdown chuckled, standing back up as Swindle went back to work on his craft. “Oh sure. Nothin’ ever on _that_ level. N’ what ‘bout all those times when ya tried ta go far n’ over that level.”

“No comment. I take no responsibility for those actions and you know it.”

A snort left Lockdown, who shook his helm in amusement. “I really can’t put a pin on ya Swin. One moment yer readable, the next yer off the charts with a new crazy scheme that pops in that helm of yers.” Swindle paused a moment to glance over his shoulder. “Though can’t say I never enjoy seein’ the mayhem ya brin’ with ya. You keep thin’s from bein’ dull ‘round here fer me ya know?”

“Heh. I know.” Swindle turned back to his work. “Same can be said about you too. Not a lot of bots I know out there who can keep me wildly entertained for more than a couple solar cycles.”

“Uh, duh. Ya get board of ‘em the moment yer plans fall through or if they don’t find ya fancy no more.” Lockdown huffed, staring at the back of Swindle’s helm. “… what is it ‘bout me?”

“Hm?” Swindle paused in his work again, turning around to face Lockdown. “What was that?”

“What is it ‘bout me ya like?” Lockdown repeated, leaning his back against the wall. “I know yer more into the beneficial aspect of our… ‘agreement’ we got goin’ on, but what is it that ya see in me n’ like so much?”

“Now what brought this up?” Swindle looked at Lockdown questionably, covering his project with a tarp.

“Don’t know.” Lockdown shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. “Jus’ been thinkin’ ‘bout it fer a while now. We’ve known each other fer over two billion stellar cycles now right?”

“Two billion, eight hundred seventy five thousand, two hundred and nineteen stellar cycles.” Swindle shrugged. “If you want to be exact.”

“Right. I know ya, n’ ya know me. But what I want ta know is why yer so interested in me.”

Swindle stared at Lockdown a moment before shrugging. “I find you inter—”

“Liar.” Swindle blinked. “That’s not the reason. Ya’ve met plenty of bots out there who are more interestin’ than me. N’ don’t say it’s ‘cause I’m yer favorite or anythin’. We both know ya would trade yer whole motherboard jus’ ta get on Megatron’s good side. Slag, ya’d sell him half of Cybertron if ya could.”

“Ha ha ha! Only half? My good mech, I could possibly sell all of Cybertron to Megatron if I could!”

“Too true.” Lockdown chuckled. “Too true… but, seriously Swindle. What _do_ ya see in me so much? What can ya see in me ta stick ‘round n’ hang ‘round me other than benefits when there’s so many other mechs out there that ya could better with? What is it ‘bout me that ya like?” Lockdown gazed at Swindle, locking his red optics with Swindle’s purple ones. “What is it that makes ya stick ‘round so long when ya don’t even keep relationships for nothin’ more than personal gain till it’s all dried up?”

Swindle stared at him for a good long moment, silence enveloping them as they kept their optics locked on one another. After a while Swindle glanced down, staring at the floor. His intake moved but no sound came out.

“What was that? Couldn’t hear ya Swin.”

“I said… you… sort of… u-understand me.” Lockdown raised an optic ridge. “Don’t get me wrong. I know we’re completely different on many levels and aspects. But…” Swindle looked back up at him, locking optics once more. “There’s something about you. Something that I can see in you that screams at me saying that you know exactly what I’ve been through as a sparkling. It may be different or it may be the same, I don’t really care. I just…” Swindle turned his helm away.

“… there’s just something about you I can’t find in anyone else. And… I don’t think I want to find it in anyone else but you.”

“… why?”

“I don’t know okay?!” Swindle threw his arms up. “I don’t know! If I knew I could tell you straight out but I can’t cause I don’t really know what it is that I really like about you! Maybe it’s because you’re reliable most of the time! Maybe it’s because you and I have a thing with being greedy! Maybe it’s because I think you’re good looking! I don’t know!” Swindle turned around and slammed his servos on the desk. The items and tools shook by the force, but neither mech paid them any mind. “… I don’t really know why I like you so much Lockdown. It could be a number of things or it could be solely one thing, I just… I really don’t know.”

Lockdown stared at Swindle’s slumped for a good long while. “… ya think I’m good lookin’?”

Swindle immediately sat up straight, spinning around to stare at Lockdown with wide optics. The pair stared at each other until Lockdown smirked and Swindle groaned as heat flooded his cheeks.

“I-I didn’t mean anything like that! It just slipped out!”

“But ya still think I’m good lookin’.”

“N-No! I! NO!” Swindle spun around to hide his face while Lockdown pushed off the wall and calmly walked over.

“So ya jus’ find my looks intrestin’?” Lockdown leaned against the chair Swindle was sitting in, putting his helm close to Swindle’s. “Unique? _Appealin’_?”

“ALLURING!” Swindle screamed. “I Find Your Appearance And You Personality Alluring Okay?!”

“Allurin’? Isn’t that another way of jus’ sayin’ sexy?” Lockdown teased, causing Swindle to cover his face with his servos and scream. The mercenary chuckled, grabbing the chair and spinning it around so Swindle was facing him. “Yer jus’ way too easy sometimes Swin.”

“W-What’s tha—?” Swindle’s words were cut off as Lockdown pressed his intake against his. His optics flickered before closing, pressing back against Lockdown as the hunter looped his hook around the merchant’s neck and pulled him out of the chair towards Lockdown’s personal room.

Megacycles later, Lockdown awoke to the feeling of his chest being touch and found Swindle tracing one of his digits over his rubsign, staring at it with half open optics.

“… I really don’t know what exactly I see in you that I like so much… or why… but I don’t really care as long as when keep having the beneficial outcome right?” His gaze shifted from the seal to looking right at Lockdown. “You get your mods and upgrades and I get a pretty great protector. That’s all you really see in me after all, right?”

Lockdown stared at him for a while before sighing, wrapping his arm around Swindle lazily and closed his optics. “Yeah. That’s all.” 


	50. The Name (BlitzBee)

It was quiet out. Sari couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Quiet nights in the base these days were hard to determine if it was okay to wander out or not. Still, she had to be careful. Half of the team was still on edge ever since Blitzwing came to the base. She didn’t put her full trust in that bot, but it was clear Blitzwing really did care about Bumblebee.

The ex-Decepticon hardly left Bee’s side when returned and seemed to genuinely get upset when they had been separated. Blitzwing wasn’t completely nice, but he tried to not be rude either and tended to stay away from everyone, especially from Ratchet. The only one who he seemed to be familiar and had somewhat good terms with was Bulkhead, though she wouldn’t say that they were completely friends with each other.

They were on conversational level of speaking with each other, though most conversations were short or were discussions about art. Having Blitzwing as a mentor for artistic help was questionable, but no one could deny that Bulkhead really seemed to be improving with the triple changers help. Sari could actually start to make out what the big guy was painting now!

Still, Blitzwing was hard to approach at times and it didn’t help that neither he nor Ratchet seemed to like each other too much. They both kept a far distance from each other, but Ratchet had made it very clear that he didn’t trust the ex-Decepticon in the slightest, no matter how much Optimus or Prowl tried to reason with him.

Peeking her head out, Sari glanced down each end of the hallway. Once she was sure they were empty, she quickly ran down the hall, making sure to stay quite. She knew that she would hardly get caught at this hour, but it was better if she didn’t get caught anyway. It would be hard to explain what she doing up so late if Optimus or Prowl caught her right now.

Pressing her back against the wall, Sari peeked into the living room for any sign of the Autobot leader. Optimus had been staying up late for a while now with his focus on the monitors. She didn’t know what he was looking up on it, but it seemed to be pretty important if it had his full attention.

Once she saw it was all clear, she dashed for the main doors. The area she was heading for had only two main ways to get to, with one being out of her reach and was too loud. She needed to be quite and sneaky if she didn’t want to get caught before she could get there.

Lifting the door was taxing and hard to move quietly, but she managed to make a large enough gap for her to squeeze under. Once she managed to get herself outside, she quickly took out her phone, switching on the light and made a dash around to the side of the base. It wasn’t long till she made it to another door.

The same door that went down into the basement.

Setting her phone down next to the door, Sari gave it a quick tug. To her surprise, the door wasn’t locked. It easily moved under her touch, lifting up just enough for her to move under and get inside. Grabbing her phone, she ducked inside, moving her flashlight around the dark room.

The beam of light went around, showing a mostly empty room as Sari ventured in further, trying to spot the familiar color of bright yellow in the darkness. It took her a few minutes and aimless wandering before she caught a glimpse of yellow. Moving her flashlight back, a grin broke out across Sari’s face.

There he was.

Bumblebee was sitting against the wall, curled up with his head bowed and arms wrapped around a small being in his arms, sleeping peacefully.

Being quiet as she could be, Sari slowly moved towards her friend. She was a few feet away when she was suddenly grabbed harshly and pulled away. A small yelp escaped her before her mouth and her entire head was covered. She struggled from a few moments in panic but stopped when she heard a familiar accented voice.

“Vhat? Jou?”

The presser on her body lessened somewhat and her head freed from its imprisonment. She didn’t have a moment to relax before she was lifted up to a frowning Blitzwing’s face.

“Vhat are jou doing here?” His voice came out in a low hiss, looking very irritated at her. “Don’t jou know vhat time it is right now?”

Sari shot him a glare, wiggling around in his grip. “Uh, don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on someone and grab them?”

Blitzwing narrowed his eye at her before his face suddenly switched to Hothead. “Zat Does—” He stopped suddenly. His gaze shifted from her to something else for a moment, then he shifted and started moving.

“Hey! Where are—”

“ _Shh!_ ” Blitzwing covered her mouth with his thumb, glaring at her to be quiet as he moved towards the exit. “I’m not going to hurt jou.”

“Gee, that’s very reassuring.” Sari sarcastically remarked as Blitzwing left the basement and stood at full height once outside. Unconsciously, she grabbed his fingers and gripped them tightly. She had been held plenty of times by her friends and lifted up to staggering heights before, and her old room at Sumdac Tower was pretty high up. But being in Blitzwing’s hold somehow brought out a more staggering realization of how **big** he really was. She felt fine being held by her friends but that was because she felt safe and trusted them with her life.

Blitzwing on the other hand wasn’t any of her friends, nor was he known to be exactly _gentle._

Thankfully she didn’t think about it too much as Blitzwing set her down quickly. With her feet back on solid ground, she quickly spun around to face Blitzwing. The triple changer was glaring at her with his arms crossed against his chest. The stance sort of reminded her of moments when her dad would look at her disapprovingly when she did something really bad.

Puffing out her cheeks, Sari copied Blitzwing’s stance, glaring back at him with as much force as she could muster. They stood there for a long moment, neither backing down nor moving an inch.

“Vell?” Blitzwing finally spoke up after a few solid minutes had passed.

“Well what?” Sari countered, trying to look intimidating, though she wasn’t sure if she was actually making any difference. Blitzwing hardly seemed fazed by it.

“Are jou going to tell me vhy jou tried to zneak in in zee middle of zee night?” Blitzwing huffed. “If jou vanted to visit, jou could have done zo in zee morning.”

“That’s really none of your business.” Sari huffed, standing her ground.

Blitzwing growled lowly at her before his face swapped to Random. “Aaaaaww, vhy not? Too zcared to tell me?”

“I’m not scared!”

Blitzwing cackled, hopping from one foot to another in delighted while clapping his hands. “Jou are! Jou totally are!”

“I am not! I’m not scare of the likes of you!” Sari stomped her foot on the ground and glaring at Blitzwing as he continued to tease her a bit longer before his switched to his more composed face.

“Zen vhy don’t jou tell me vhy exactly jou’re out here zis late at night.” Blitzwing shifted back to his former stance. “Normally I vouldn’t mind if Hummel got visitors, but zey usually happen in zee day.” His eye narrowed at her. “Zo vhy are jou visiting at night vhen Hummel is try to zleep? Couldn’t jou have just vaited till it vas morning to zee him.”

“I can visit my friends whenever I want!”

“Even if it mean disturbing him from his zleep? Zomething zat he has been trying to get for two megacycles?” Sari opened her mouth to protest but no words came out as she registered Blitzwing’s words. He seemed to catch on to her hesitance and continued. “Zleep zat he has been struggling to get for solar cycles while caring for a zparkling on his own, despite knowing he could have asked for help.” He bent his knees, lowering himself so his face was just a few inches away from her.

“If jou vere really his best friend as jou claimed, jou vould have valued his need for rest and vaited till morning to visit him.”

Sari’s face scrunched up. “I am his best friend! You don’t know anything about me to say something like that!”

“Jou zink zo?”

“Yeah!”

“Zo vhy are jou here zen zo late out?” Blitzwing asked again, irritation bleeding in his voice. “As I zaid, jou could have—”

“No! I couldn’t!” Sari shouted, catching Blitzwing off-guard with her outburst. “I couldn’t see Bumblebee! Everyone’s been keeping me away from Bee ever since he came back and I’m sick and tired of everyone keeping me in the dark about what’s been going on and not trusting me with anything!” She panted, feeling her eyes beginning to get wet. She rubbed at them with the back of her hand, trying to get rid of them before Blitzwing could make fun of her for showing a weak side of herself in front of him.

However, she was taken by surprise when she felt a large thumb pressing against her cheek and rubbed away her tears with surprising gentleness. Her gaze went up to the large bot, gazing at him questionably.

“… I believe Hummel told me zese are called tears zat humans produce during extreme emotional breakdowns.” Sari narrowed her eyes a bit, shoving his hand away.

“That’s not funny.”

“I’m not teasing jou.” Blitzwing stated firmly, yet there was no real anger or teasing tone in his voice. “Believe me, zee last zing I vant to do is make anyone miserable.”

“You didn’t have a problem with that a few months ago when you were still with the Decepticons.”

Blitzwing hummed, nodding his head slowly. “Nein. I didn’t.” He was silent a moment. “… I guess zere’s a lot of zings I didn’t have a problem vith vhen I vas a Decepticon.”

Sari stare at him, gazing at the large bot. There were a lot of conflicting feelings inside the small girl. Most were caution and distrust, but she was also curious and confused. All caused by one single bot in front of her. There was a lot of things Blitzwing was to her, but none of them made any sense to her.

When Bumblebee had been found and brought back to the team, she instantly clung to him when they saw each other. She had been so relieved to see him again, but it became oblivious to her that there was slight tension in the air around Bumblebee and the others. Bee refused to talk to Ratchet or even look at him. Optimus had it a bit better yet it took a while for Bee to hold a normal conversation with him or even let his guard down around the Autobot leader.

Out of all the Autobots, Bulkhead seemed to have it easier with Bumblebee. The wrecker was still on friendly terms with Bee, though he still got a bit of a chew out from Bulkhead when things calmed down. Prowl on the other hand seemed to avoided Bumblebee, disappearing when Bee entered the room or keeping a far distance from him. She didn’t know why and neither were willing to tell her why. It didn’t seem a problem anymore now.

Prowl had made plenty of visits to the basement when Bumblebee was brought back to the base. Sometimes by Optimus’s order to check on Bee and Blitzwing or on his own freewill. Sari had tried to go along with him during his visits, but…

“Why is everyone keeping me from seeing Bumblebee?” The question tumbled out her mouth before she could realizes her mistake.

“Because Hummel doesn’t feel safe.” The sentence caught Sari off-guard, gazing up at Blitzwing questionably. The large ex-Con sighed, reaching a hand behind his head and rubbed it. “Hummel… vat’s zee best vay to explain zis to jou?” Blitzwing’s face scrunched up, looking contemplated as he mulled over the best way to speak.

“… doesn’t feel safe? What do you mean?” Sari asked, gripping her Key as a means of comfort. Her thoughts drifted to Bumblebee. Was he okay? Why did he feel so unease that he would hide himself away from everyone?

Blitzwing grumbled, turning his gaze to looking at the ground next to Sari. “… I promised zee Pr—Optimus zat I vouldn’t tell jou vat happened vhen Hummel vent missing.” He went silent a moment. “… But I can tell jou zat it vas zomething very bad happened to him.”

“What happened to him?”

Blitzwing pulled a face, one that didn’t sit well with Sari. “I… I can’t tell jou.”

“Why not?” Sari placed her hands on her hips.

“Do not misinterpret me vithholding information villingly.” Blitzwing huffed, shifting himself so he was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. “I’m just doing vhat jour leader has asked me to.”

“Well that doesn’t really mean anything if you won’t tell—”

“DIDN’T JOU JUST HEAR ME?!” Sari jumped, backing away from Blitzwing. If there was one side of Blitzwing she didn’t like, it was his Hothead side. That side was always hard to handle, and it didn’t help that that this particular side was the most aggressive and hardheaded of his three faces. “I Zaid Zat I’m Following Jour Leader’s Request To Keep Zilent About It! And I Don’t Vant To Talk About It!”

Steam shot out from Blitzwing’s mouth, puffing out large hot clouds that rose to the night sky. “Maybe jou zhould zink about vhy everyone is avoiding zee topic before—” _Whirr._ “Before jou make a big oopsy~!” Blitzwing cackled as he wiggled his fingers at her.

Sari frowned deeply at the large triple changer. “… I still don’t understand how you and Bee are dating. You two are complete opposites!”

Blitzwing’s face switched back to Icy, staring at her for a moment before letting out a slow sigh. “Honestly, I ztill vounder how ve ended up together most nights zometimes.” His gaze went to the sky. “… I don’t understand how ve vork out, but ve do…”

“… So, why do you and Bee date?” Sari couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, you do seem to really like Bumblebee. But I don’t understand what you guys see in each other. You’re big, completely insane at times, and hard to hold a normal conversation with most of the time.” Blitzwing turn his gaze on her, giving her a pointed look. “And Bumblebee is a funny, talkative, loyal, and fun to hang around with. You guys are like the complete opposite of each other.”

 _Whirr._ “Vell, jou know vhat zey zay! Opposites attract!” Blitzwing cackled a moment before switching back to Icy. “I vill admit zat it’s hard to understand. I’ve known Hummel for ztellar cycles yet I ztill don’t understand vhat he zees in me that he likes zo much.” He placed a hand against his cheek, looking at the sky thoughtfully.

“How did you and Bee even meet? Bulkhead said you guys were dating a long time before you arrived on Earth.” Sari inched closer to the big bot. While she still didn’t trust him, she felt a little bit more at ease around him.

Blitzwing hummed, leaning back against the wall. “Vell, it vas a long time ago. But I zink I ztill remember how it started.”

* * *

It was cold.

Too cold.

Bumblebee shifted, opening his optics slowly.

It took a while for his processor to kick in to remember where he was and why it was so dark. Glancing down at his arms, a small smile crossed his face at the sight of his daughter sleeping peacefully. She looked so calm and quiet in his arms, completely unaware of her surroundings.

Something Bee wished he wasn’t aware of right now.

Bumblebee frowned as he gazed up and found himself alone with the sparkling with no Blitzwing in sight. His frown deepened, looking around with growing worry pooling in his tank the longer he couldn’t see the triple changer in the room with him.

Standing up, Bee headed for the back entrance of the basement, power walking to get out and find Blitzwing or anyone else. He didn’t trust himself to be alone with the sparkling. It wasn’t safe without someone with him. It was dangerous to be alone without a second pair of optics around.

Reaching the door, Bee carefully lifted up, minding to be quiet so that the sparkling would sleep peacefully without disturbance.

“He did what?!”

Bee paused, sticking halfway out the door before the shrill scream of a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Exactly vhat I zaid he did!” Bumblebee turned his helm to the sound of Blitzwing’s voice, feeling himself relax at the sight of Blitzwing. “Jou vould zink zat knowing better from last time he vouldn’t try zee zame zing twice, but he zure proved me vrong!”

“And let me guess, the same thing happened?” Bee gazed from Blitzwing down to a small form sitting in front of the large bot.

“Actually, he managed to do zee ztunt perfectly zee zecond time around, zo-Hummel!” Bee smiled as Blitzwing noticed him, giving him a small wave. Whirr. “Hummel, vhat are jou doing up zo late?”

“Bumblebee!” Bee jumped a bit at the scream, looking down as he felt one of his legs getting hugged. “Oh my gosh I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you are? You okay? Why haven’t you come out of the basement? Why is everyone keeping you separate from the team? Is it because of Blitzwing?”

“ _OI!_ ”

“Isn’t it boring down there? Are you coming back to your room soon? Because I miss having my best friend around to hang out with!” Bee smiled down at Sari, happy to see her again after so long. The large smile on her face was infectious, feeling more at ease seeing her. It wasn’t long however that her eyes moved to the small bot in Bee’s arms. “Hey, who’s that?”

Tension formed in Bee’s body, suddenly realizing that he still had the sparkling in his arms.

“Wait. Is that you’re baby?!” Sari squealed, her eyes widening with excitement. “Ohmygosh! I can I see her?! Can I?! Can I?!”

Bee grew more tense at Sari’s growing excitement to his sparkling, clutching the femmling close to him. Despite being around his team and growing more at ease around them, he still didn’t trust anyone beside Ratchet and Blitzwing to come close or hold his sparkling. He felt a little guilty for not trusting the rest of the team around his youngling, but he wouldn’t really take the risk.

“Can—AH!” Bee blinked as Blitzwing scooped up Sari suddenly, bringing the small girl close to his face. “Hey! What was that for?!”

“I zink jou zhould give Hummel a bit of space for zee moment.” Blitzwing gave Sari’s cheek a small poke. “His carrier coding is a bit edgy at zee moment and jou are unintentionally putting him on edge.”

“Carrier coding?” Sari looked at Blitzwing confused before something clicked in her mind. “Oh right! Ratchet talked about that. Something about making bots really super protective or something like that.”

“Jou’re very attentive aren’t jou?” Blitzwing rolled his optic, looking back at Bee with a small smile. Bee smiled back, feeling his tension easing up slightly. Right, Blitzwing was here now. Blitzwing could protect them from threats and Sari wasn’t a threat. His best friend could never hurt him.

Inching closer to the pair, Bumblebee carefully sat down next to Blitzwing, snuggling up against his side and sighed with relief of feeling the familiar warmth of his triple changer lover. The night wasn’t cold or anything unpleasant, but Bumblebee loved the extra heat Blitzwing seemed to give off from his body.

“Soooo.” Bee opened one optic, glancing at Sari as the young human set herself comfortably in Blitzwing’s servo. “Blitzwing was just telling me a few stories of how you guys hung out before you got to Earth. And a few of them were pretty funny.” Bee bit back a groan. Oh _slag_. He better not have told her all those embarrassing tricks he tried to do as a youngling. He could never live those down!

Blitzwing chuckled, switching to Random. “Jou zhould have zeen zee faces he vould pull! Zee vay his face vould zcrunch up in irritation. It vas almost priceless!”

“Too bad you don’t have any photos of that. I bet they were awesome.”

Icy came back, humming. “Ja, zey vere. Zey very much vere. Unfortunately, over time zee data got corrupted and I zadly had to delete zem.”

“Aww, that’s too bad.” Sari pouted before she was looking at Bumblebee and smiling again. “So Bumblebee, do you guys have any names figured out yet?”

“Names?”

“Yeah! For her.” Sari pointed a finger right at the sparkling still sleeping in Bee’s arms. “It’s been over a month already and you guys still haven’t told anyone what her name is yet.”

Bee’s optics widened, looking up at Blitzwing. He hadn’t told anyone yet?

“… vhy are jou looking at me like zat Hummel?” Bumblebee frowned. “… ztop it.” His frown deepened. “Nein. I’m not going to zay it.” Deeper. “Jou know vhy I haven’t told anyone yet! Don’t try to pin zis on me!”

Bumblebee rolled his optics. Okay, yeah. He could get why Blitzwing hasn’t told anyone yet, but does he have to be so defensive about it?

“What? What is it?” Both bots attention were drawn back to the small girl. “You guys already have a name figured out? What is it?!”

Bee could feel Blitzwing cringe against him, which made Bee roll his optics again. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad of a name to give to their kid. Blitzwing even said that he liked it, and he came up with the first half of it! Why was getting so defensive sharing it with everyone else?

“Uh, v-vell, it’s not very—”

“Wisp.”

Both Sari and Blitzwing went still, looking towards Bumblebee and stare at him in shock.

“Her name…” Bee looked down at the femmling sleeping in his arms. “… is Sunset Wisp.”

“… OH MY GOSH BEE!” The Autobot and triple changer jumped, looking at Sari as the girl squealed loudly. “You’re talking again!”

“Uh, I’ve actually been talking for a while now.” Bee admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his helm. “For a few solar cycles at least. But hey, at least…” His smile dropped as the sparkling in his arms shifted and started to whine. “Oh great, not now. Please don’t start crying sweetspark. You’ve only had…” Bee checked the time. “Half of a megacycle of sleep. Please don’t start crying now.”

“I can’t be helped Hummel.” Blitzwing sighed as Wisp began to cry “Joung zparks are very light zleepers.”

“Oh, eh heh. Oops?” Sari chuckled as Bee shot her a small glare. “Sorry.”

Bumblebee sighed. “And there goes _another_ night without decent rest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of Little Sparks! The next part won't be out for a while, but there's a small snag. I..... don't know who I should focus on first for part 2.
> 
> But that's were you come in!
> 
> In the comments below, please put in your vote of who I should focus on for part 2 of the Little Sparks Series! The choices are obvious but here they are anyway.
> 
> A) BlitzBee  
> B) ShockBlurr  
> C) SwinLock  
> D) Skip all focus on ships and just focus on cute babies
> 
> Alright! I hope you all enjoyed this first story! I don't know when the next part will be out, but I hope you all will like and enjoy it when it finally comes out! Until later, stay safe and have a wonderful day!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review if you liked or have questions.


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